PUSD Honors Heroes

PUSD 2020 Awards



Eric Gothold, Rose City High School, Teacher of the Year

Eric Gothold has been a teacher in PUSD for more than 28 years and served as an assistant principal for four years. He spent the first 26 years at Washington Middle School. At Rose City, he teaches Studio Art and Photography, and has placed students into arts internships, obtained scholarships for aspiring artists, and helped students curate, prepare, and install the District’s annual “No Boundaries” student art exhibition. PUSD’s Teacher of the Year represents our district in the Los Angeles County Teacher of the Year awards. “There is no quit in teaching,” he says. “You have to keep going and trying things until something works.”

On behalf of all of us, congratulations Eric!

Elizabeth Powell, Director of Food Services, Classified Employee of the Year

Mrs. Powell has been the Director of Food Services with PUSD for the past 3 ½ years and was the Assistant Director before that. In her role as director, she is responsible for the administration of the Food Service Department and the District Warehouse. She has done an outstanding job this past year under challenging circumstances. Through her leadership, Food Service staff, along with the aid of community volunteers, have served over 700,000 meals since the stay home order went into effect on March 16th. Ms. Powell has a real passion for the feeding and wellbeing of our students. She not only led the seamless feeding of students when our sites closed, but she also spearheaded the distribution of 24,000 reading books from our district warehouse to children during curbside meal service. She managed to fill all 41 little libraries throughout Pasadena twice since June. Before the pandemic, Ms. Powell led the charge to improve the quality of food in our cafeterias, introduced breakfast in the classroom, and as of this school year, has secured the ability for all PUSD students to eat school meals at no cost.

She truly is an asset to the district and to each and every PUSD student.

Brian Stanley, Rose City High School, Principal of the Year.

A gifted leader who puts his experience as a youth in foster care to work for students at Rose City High School, he often says that Rose City students are incredible and that working with them rejuvenates him. Brian has been with PUSD for 18 years, first as a teacher at McKinley and later as a teacher, dean, and assistant principal at Rose City. He became the principal of Rose City in 2015. Under his leadership, Rose City was named a model continuation high school by the State of California. The same year, the California Continuation Education Association (Southern Region) named Michael McNeely as Teacher of the Year and named Kathleen Watson as Support Staff of the Year.

Congratulations Brian!

Geoff Albert, Volunteer of the Year

When schools closed in March because of the pandemic, Geoff Albert was among the first to volunteer to serve meals at PUSD Grab and Go Centers. He also volunteered to deliver meals to families and others who couldn’t get to our centers. Geoff ensured that our most vulnerable students, families, and individuals got the nourishment they need. In his role with Collaborate PASadena, he works tirelessly to fill the gap in services between various organizations in our community so that children and their families have the support they need to thrive. During the pandemic, many individuals and organizations stepped up to support our students. Goeff Albert represents the incredible, giving, and generous spirit of the volunteers who work every day to support our students.

Congratulations Geoff, and thank you.

Superintendent’s Awards:

Despite the many challenges we’re facing to stay safe as a community, many stepped up with care and concern to help. There are many heroes among us. Because of the way you stepped up, our community has clearly seen how our schools are the cornerstone of our society.

The Superintendent’s Awards are designed to honor the unsung heroes among us. We would like to thank the California Credit Union for their generous sponsorship of these awards.

While there are many heroes, we’ve decided to honor three departments for their exceptional work.

The recipients of the 2020 Superintendent’s Award are:

Curriculum, Instruction & Professional Development. We honor the CIPD team for making sure that our teachers, staff, and administrators get the training and support they need to continue teaching our students through online learning.

 

Food Service – Grab & Go Food Centers. Food Services have been working tirelessly on the front lines to serve the community and make sure that children get nutritious meals. Despite these challenging times, the PUSD Food Services Department has been helping children focus on continuing their education.

Innovative Technology Services (ITS) – Curbside Team – We thank them for their outstanding efforts on the front lines supporting the continuing education of PUSD students during the sudden transition to online learning.

 

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