Since the 1950’s the Lions Club of Seal Beach has honored the teachers.
Earlier this month, they honored a teacher from each of the schools in the Los Alamitos Unified School District at a banquet.
The event was held at the Seal Beach Marina Community Center. Also honored were three administrators of the year and the district teacher of the year.
Those receiving the award were as follows: Jenny Stuart (Hopkinson Elementary), Melissa Chambers (Lee Elementary), Sara Carinchi (Los Alamitos Elementary), Jodi Bailey (McGaugh Elementary), Tami Sciacca (Rossmoor Elementary), Stacy Schmitz (Weaver Elementary), Barbara O’Connor (McAuliffe Middle School), and Debby Brosius (Los Alamitos High School). The Administrators of the Year are Dr. Mark Johnson (Assistant Superintendent of Educational Services), Kiva Spiratos (Principal of Rossmoor Elementary) and Melissa Miller (Assistant Principal of Los Alamitos High School). Ms. Miller has also been designated as Co-administrator of the Year by the Orange County Association of California Adminstrators.
Each recipient received a plaque designating them a Harry Aslan fellow. This signifies that a $200 donation was given to the Lions Student Speaker Foundation which awards thousands of dollars every year to students who participate in the student speaker contest sponsored by Lions in California.
Each teacher was introduced by their principal who told why the particular teacher was so deserving of the award. Then the teacher told a little bit about their teaching experience.
Also recognized as the Teacher of the Year for the whole district was Justin Padilla, an instrumental music teacher at Oak Middle School. Mr. Padilla had just returned from the Monterey Jazz festival where his middle school jazz band was invited to attend and perform.
District Office Administrator of the year, Dr. Mark Johnson, was introduced by Dr. Sherry Kropp, Superintendent of the Los Alamitos Unified School District. Then Dr. Josh Arnold, principal of Los Alamitos High School introduced co-administrator of the year Melissa Miller. Lastly, Deputy Superintendent Patti Meyer (a Lion herself) introduced principal of the year, Kiva Spiratos. Mrs. Spiratos commented that this is always her favorite event of the year.
Many of the recipients commented about the feeling of family within the District and how everyone supports each other. Several of the teachers had been students within the Los Alamitos School District themselves. Stacy Schmitz, recipient from Weaver School, told how she always wanted to be a teacher since kindergarten. When contacting her former kindergarten teacher about winning this award her teacher said that she always knew she would someday be a great teacher.
Seen above from left: Front Row (left to right) – Debby Brosius, Tiffani Orozco, Melissa Chambers, Barbara O”Connor, Sara Carinchi, Stacy Schmitz, Jodi Bailey, and Kiva Spiratos.Back Row (left to right) – Justin Padilla, Melissa Miller, Dr. Mark Johnson, Jenny Stuart, and Tami Sciacca.
