EDUCATOR OF THE YEAR 

 

Our Core Focus - Social Responsibility 

RCV wants to offer more than just our services to our community. It is our duty to pay it forward and we truly believe in giving back to the local community.
One such endeavor is our support of The Educator of the Year Award.

 

Cathy Hastings is our 2022 Educator of the Year Award recipient.

Cathy Hastings has been an 8th Grade Science Teacher at Edgewood Junior High School For 45 years. As a physical education and health major with a biology and dance minor at Ball State University, she was able to fit “right into the slot they were looking for,” said Cathy. When Edgewood Junior High School called Cathy, she was offered to teach four 6th grade science classes, two 8th grade PE classes and coach the gymnastics team. She has “been there ever since.”

The most rewarding part of Cathy’s profession is knowing that she made a difference in someone's life. She has gotten to see that in so many ways. The first time the teachers took students to Kentucky Kingdom to "experience" physics, the whole bus squealed in delight when the park first came into sight. Cathy got to see it when a child exclaimed, "I didn't even know they had places like this." Cathy also gets to hear when she runs into past students and they let her know that she made a difference for them.

“I feel my greatest successes are anytime when I have influenced a child for the better. I have heard many times from both former students and parents of former students that I had had a great influence in helping them or their child gain confidence or believe in themselves more through the encouragement they received from me in class.” - Cathy Hastings

“She is a go-getter that inspires me every day to be a better teacher. She has worked hard to cultivate student engagement, to foster within her students the belief that their potential can be reached through hard work, good strategies, and input from others with whom they surround themselves. There truly isn’t enough time to express all that she has done for her students and for education as a whole. She is the very fabric of Edgewood Jr. High School (RBBCSC) and her legacy will live on for many years after her retirement.”

—Rebecca Hillenburg, Current Colleague

Cathy Hastings
2022

Dr. Kathleen Hugo
2021

Dr. Kathleen Hugo is our 2021 Educator of the Year Award recipient.

For the last 13 school years, Dr. Kathleen Hugo has been the director of MCCSC's Special Education Office. Unique among Lifetime Award recipients, before, MCCSC, she was employed by the Richland Bean-Blossom District for 12 years. There she ran the Forest Hills Special Eduction Operative with the Spencer-Owen Community school. Kathleen started her career in Mesa, AZ teaching deaf children. She received her Ph.D. in special education and behavior disorders from Arizona State University. 

As a college freshman in Texas, Kathleen has a friend who was a sign language interpreter. When she went to visit a preschool classroom for Deaf students, she was immediately taken by the teacher's skill in helping her students develop both communication and academic skills. Here first thought was "that is what I want to do". 

Kathleen is most proud of the work she and MCCSC have done concerning diversity and inclusion. Her staff has worked tirelessly to ensure that the needs of the students with the more significant disabilities, emotions, and behaviors are met.  They have embraced concepts such as trauma-enforced care as a means to figure out wats to keep kids successful and in school The most rewarding aspect of her work was hearing from parents and caregivers that their student is doing well - that they are making good academic progress, feeling good about school, making new friends, or any other positive outcome. 

 

Lawrence DeMoss is our 2020 Educator of the Year Award recipient.

 

Lawrence DeMoss has been a dedicated English teacher at Edgewood High school for 32 years. Mr. DeMoss traded out a life of fast food orders to teaching English when he realized how much he enjoyed working with young people. During his time as a teacher, he has found that professional commitment, advocacy, and high energy are the path to success as an educator.

With these three values in mind, he has seen plenty of student successes. For example, he asked a student who hated writing to stay after school and work on a two-page personal essay. After weeks of working on the essay, Mr. DeMoss allowed the student to print his essay on an old dot-matrix printer. As the essay was being printed, the student looked at his work in disbelief and said, "I did THAT?" The look the student gave Mr. DeMoss was the moment he realized that education was his calling.

These successes, small or large, are what keep him motivated in what he does. Mr. DeMoss accounts his success to his sixth-grade teacher Dan Havens. Dan was the teacher who helped Mr. DeMoss see that he could do some things that other students couldn't do and that he should use his talent to lead others.

As Mr. DeMoss moves into retirement, he wants people to remember him as a committed English teacher who cared about his students. He will also be happy if some just remember him as "The Voice of the Mustangs!"

 

Lawrence DeMoss
2020

Jean Schick
2019

 

 

Jean Schick is our 2019 Educator of the Year Award recipient.

 

Over the past 26 years, Jean Schick has fostered a love of science in her students at Bloomington High School North. Her enthusiasm for science is contagious.

As the Department Chairperson, she supports all science teachers at BHS North. As Coordinator for MCCSC’s Science Resource Center, Ms. Schick supports all science teachers in MCCSC schools by providing the consumable materials and equipment necessary for “needy” science. The center removes some of the hurdles and lessens the challenges of teaching science. It also provides more equal opportunities for all MCCSC students to engage in scientific processes.

Ms. Schick expands the horizons of her students so much that they have even sent an experiment into space! One of her sophomore chemistry classes collaborated with NASA to place a protein crystallization project onboard the International Space Station. Ms. Schick works hard to foster a “can-do” attitude in each of her students through the scientific process. Science allows her to engage students' in tangible and thought-provoking ways. This includes the Project Lead the Way’s Biomedical pathway, a program partially developed by Ms. Schick and now implemented nationwide. Bloomington is truly a better place because of Jean Schick’s dedication to the students of the community.

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