The Scottsbluff Public Schools Foundation presented three Excellence in Education Awards to local education professionals this week.
Ashley Dillman, Crystal Johnson, and the paraeducators of the PAWS program at Lincoln Heights were honored during surprise presentations Monday and Tuesday.
The SBPS Foundation Awards were created in 2019 to recognize outstanding Scottsbluff Public Schools employees that go above and beyond their expected duties. All SBPS employees are eligible to be nominated and nominations are accepted from parents, students, staff and community members.
Ashley Dillman, Grade 7 Math
Ashley was nominated for consistently going above and beyond to ensure that all of her students are successful. She spends late nights working at BMS helping students, preparing lessons and materials, supporting other teachers, attending all of her students’ IEP/504 meetings, making phone calls home to ensure parents are up to date with how their child is doing in school. In addition Ashley does numerous things throughout the BMS building to ensure things run smoothly throughout the school day. An example of this would be the staggered passing period daily schedule she created for the building to use during COVID. She is and has been a part of numerous building improvement projects. Ashley Dillman is the type of person who will go out of her way to help everyone around her, students and staff included, and not expect anything in return. The relationships she builds with her students and the dedication she puts into teaching is phenomenal.
Crystal Johnson, SBPS After School Program Coordinator
Crystal Johnson is one major reason why the 21st CCLC After School Program is thriving like it is today. Crystal works with DHHS to make sure that every site in our district has the necessary paperwork submitted, she reaches out to our many community partners and schedules activities and speaking engagements to give the students that attend our program an engaging experience. The ASP Program has successfully implemented the Think Make Create trailer that goes from elementary school to elementary school one week at a time to give students wonderful hands on activities. This has been a success because of Crystals hard work and dedication to help make sure that the trailer is organized, fully stocked, and accessible each week as students have the opportunity to work on many of the activities that this trailer offers. Crystal has also been instrumental with the implementation of a new program this year called The Bay. This wonderful opportunity gives students in 4th and 5th grades an opportunity to work in the areas of photography, making music, and skateboarding.
PAWS Paraeducators – Dallas Liptac, Jonathan Shadegg, Melissa Arrelano, Nancy Espino
As a team, the PAWS paras work extremely hard to provide vital support students with unique needs and who face many challenges. Our paras are extremely dedicated to students, always eager and excited to help them however they can. It can be difficult working in close quarters with so many other adults and lots of different personalities, but the PAWS staff rises above these challenges to be excellent models of respect, responsibility, and safety at Lincoln Heights.
