Excellent Pasadena Unified Teachers Rewarded by Rotary Club

At least five Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD) teachers received a $1,500 award from the Rotary Club of Pasadena during the club’s 33rd Annual Teachers of Excellence Award Ceremony on Wednesday.

Aside from the $1,500 award, an additional $500 will be awarded to the recipients’ schools. The funding is provided by the Pasadena Rotary Foundation. The awardees also received additional recognition from city and state officials.

The Rotary Club Teachers of Excellence program has now awarded $383,000 to 200 distinguished teachers in the Pasadena Unified School District, over 33 years.

The honorees this year are Michael McNeely from Rose City High School, Isabel Reynoso from Blair High School, Donna Tucker from John Muir High School Early College Magnet, Ashley Webb from Altadena Arts Magnet and Marion Yamada from Alexander Hamilton Elementary School.

McNeely has taught at Rose City High School for 16 years. During that time he has taught English, construction, student, leadership, and physical education. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in English, and a Masters degree in teaching, as well as a Masters of Arts degree in poetry.

Says McNeely, “I choose to teach at Rose City High School, because I feel a need for engaging, teaching and learning and alternative education. I thrive on student engagement and supporting students learning with a curriculum specially designed for a credit-deficient, typically unengaged student population. I teach to show my students that there is a purpose to what they are learning, to remind them of the joy of learning, and to reignite a love for learning that will carry them on to become lifelong learners.”

Isabel Reynoso has worked at Blair High school teaching biology since 2004. She is also a graduate of Blair. 

“I am humbled and honored to be receiving this award,” said Reynoso. “I always envisioned myself working in a career that somehow would allow me to contribute to the community that had so much influence on me, most of my upbringing, and share the same values.”

Donna Tucker has taught the last eight years at the John Muir High School Early College Magnet. She attended Ohio State University, Miami University, and the University of Cincinnati, where she received a bachelor of arts degree in English Literature, a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education, and a Masters in Education. 

She has been recognized as “an inspirational teacher by a number of students of the years, and strives to always make a difference in the life of each student she has the privilege of teaching.”

Ashley Webb, of Altadena Arts Magnet, has served on the academy’s school site council committee, acted as a technology leader for her campus, mentored student teachers, and served on the Instructional Leadership Corps, through Stanford University in partnership with the California Teachers Association.

Marion Yamada of Alexander Hamilton Elementary School has taught in various capacities over 16 years in the Pasadena Unified School District. She began her teaching career at Washington Elementary where veteran teachers help to guide and support her journey as an educator. Yamada has called Hamilton Elementary her home as a kindergarten teacher for the past eight years, she is “extremely passionate about early literacy and making learning fun.”

She holds a BA in psychology, a multiple subjects teaching credential and an MA in education from the University of California, Irvine.

PUSD Superintendent Brian McDonald was scheduled to attend the ceremony, but did not. 

The teachers were screened by a selection committee composed of Rotarians, previous award recipients, and a former PUSD teacher and administrator.

According to Lisa Cavelier, Co-Chair Rotary Club Teachers Excellence Program, more than 20 teachers were nominated this year.

The nomination packages included three essays from each nominee and three essays from their respective principals. Committee members then made visits for classroom observations and evaluations of the top ten finalists.

“It’s a lot of essays. And so we’re really looking at things that jump out as examples and as a little more unique than just the run of the mill,” said Cavelier.

Essay topics include evidence of successful teaching techniques, positive relationship with students, parents and teachers and professional qualities, as per Cavelier.

Cavelier expressed hopes that the honorees will use the money they will receive for themselves and not for school supplies.

“My hope is that these teachers who work really hard use this $1,500 for something positive and fun for themselves,” said Cavelier. “Honestly, I would like to see that they don’t go out and buy school supplies. I want the district to be doing that.”

The goal of the Rotary Club’s annual Teachers of Excellence Award Program is to encourage excellence in teaching and dedication to public education at PUSD.

The event, which started in 1990, is a product of hard work and dedication on the part of Pasadena Rotary’s members Al Lowe, Christle Balvin and the late Joe Lonergan, among others. Their inspiration came from Jaime Escalante, the former East Los Angeles high school teacher who believed inner-city students could master subjects as demanding as calculus.