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2 Austin schools
celebrate educators' H-E-B prizes - Pillow Elementary,
LBJ High each will receive $25,000 grants.
By
Elizabeth
Campbell
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Hot tub. Golf course. Kickball field. Fifth-graders
at Austin's Pillow Elementary yelled out those
suggestions Tuesday when their principal, Linda Webb,
asked how the school should spend the $25,000 prize it
received after Webb was named a winner of 2007 H-E-B
Excellence in Education Awards.
Webb, 45, is one of two Austin educators among the
10 winners of this year's awards. She won $10,000 for
herself.
Kelly West
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Linda Webb, principal at Pillow
Elementary, checks in with her students a lot and
on Tuesday even polled them about what the school
should spend its $25,000 on. Here she
congratulates fifth-grader Johnny De La Rosa, 11,
on his TAKS score.
Kelly West
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
LBJ High School teacher David
Journeay is congratulated by senior Corina DeLeon
as she comes into his pathophysiology class
Tuesday afternoon. 'He wants his kids to not just
learn the material,' an H-E-B official said. 'He
wants to train them in a way to think about the
world around them.
David Journeay, a science teacher at LBJ High
School, won $25,000 and a matching grant for his
school as the winner of a lifetime achievement award.
Six teachers, two principals and two school
districts, selected from 39 statewide finalists out of
an original pool of more than 2,000, won a total of
$380,000.
Also Tuesday, the Austin school district named
Michael Perkins of Kealing Middle School teacher of
the year. Perkins, an LBJ graduate and a
first-generation college student, teaches an elective
course that prepares students for college eligibility.
Perkins said that he's proud to be a role model for
minority males but that his greatest accomplishment
"will be the day my current students enroll in
college."
At Pillow Elementary in North Austin, the
community, teachers, parents and students will decide
how the grant is used, Webb said. The school could put
more money toward summer school programs or buy a
shade cover for the playground, she said.
"I promised Mr. Butt that every penny will be put
to great use for great kids," Webb said.
With her personal winnings, Webb said, she plans to
give her two grown sons a couple of hundred dollars
each and use the rest to pay some bills.
Since H-E-B chief executive Charles Butt created
the program in 2002, more than $2.5 million has been
awarded statewide, H-E-B spokeswoman Marcie Casas
said.
The program has grown to include principals and
districts and is the largest monetary awards program
of its kind in the state.
Candy Ellard, a fifth-grade teacher at Pillow, said
that in her 27 years of teaching, she's worked for a
dozen principals, but Webb is "the best principal I've
ever had."
Webb is "always in the classroom," Ellard said.
"The kids love her."
When Webb was diagnosed with breast cancer in the
fall, she used her illness as a learning opportunity
for her students. And upon hearing the students' golf
course suggestion Tuesday, Webb stepped up to an
overhead projector and began a math problem about the
expense per hole at a local course.
At LBJ, snakes, lizards and a turtle are part of
Journeay's classroom. Students learn by doing, and his
classroom environment helps make that happen, he said.
"For a lot of teachers, it's easy to get caught up
in your subject," said Kayla Rodriguez, a senior in
Journeay's classes. "For him, it's teaching for us,
not just teaching from the book."
After taking Journeay's anatomy class, senior Lisa
Gilbert decided she wants to be an orthopedic surgeon
for the NFL.
"He makes everything so interesting that you want
to keep learning about it," Gilbert said.
Linda Webb
Nick Simonite
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
H-E-B awards five
Austin-area educators
Teachers, principals
surprised in front of students
By Elizabeth Campbell
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Debra Hurst knew Monday would be a special day for
her kindergarten class at Joe Dan Mills Elementary
because the classroom chicks had hatched over the
weekend. But Hurst didn't expect a woman dressed as a
bag of groceries to show up with a cake, flowers and a
$1,000 check made out to her.
Hurst is one of 39 finalists for the 2007 H-E-B
Excellence in Education Awards who got a surprise visit
at school Monday. H-E-B representatives went to five
Austin schools and awarded a total of $13,000 to three
teachers and two principals selected from about 2,000
applicants statewide.
Larry Kolvoord
AMERICAN-STATESMAN.
Austin finalists for the H-E-B
awards include Akins High Principal Mary Alice
Deike, above right, with Associate Principal Cathy
Felder; Pillow Elementary Principal Linda Webb and
LBJ High teacher David Journeay.
"We were excited because we had our chicks hatched,"
said Hurst, who has 29 years of classroom experience.
"We thought that was a big deal, right, kids?"
The other finalists are teachers David Journeay of
LBJ High School and Tammy Phuong of McBee Elementary,
and Principals Mary Alice Deike of Akins High School and
Linda Webb of Pillow Elementary. The teachers received
$1,000 each and $1,000 for their schools, and the
principals received $1,000 each and $2,500 for their
schools.
Deike said receiving the award was "very humbling."
"This award is not just for me, because any work that
I do is because I'm representing not only the adults I
work with but the students," Deike said. "I am truly the
luckiest principal in the world."
Since H-E-B CEO Charles Butt created the Excellence
in Education Awards in 2002 to recognize outstanding
teachers, the program has awarded more than $2.5 million
to educators statewide, said H-E-B spokeswoman Marcie
Casas. The program has grown to include principals and
districts and is the largest monetary awards program of
its kind in the state.
Eight statewide winners will be announced at a dinner
in Austin on May 7. Two principals will receive $10,000
in cash and $25,000 grants for their schools. Six
teachers will receive cash prizes ranging from $5,000 to
$25,000 with matching grants for their schools.
H-E-B received more than 7,000 nominations this year.
After 2,000 educators returned applications explaining
their experience, accomplishments and educational
philosophies, the list was shortened to 223
semifinalists and then the 39 finalists.
The finalists will interview with a team of judges in
Austin in early May before the winners are chosen.
In 2004, McCallum High School history teacher Jim
Furgeson won $25,000 through the awards and gave the
majority of his winnings to his sons for their college
tuition. The school used its grant for technology
updates and, at Furgeson's urging, toward staff
development such as teacher workshops.
After Kristi Beall, then a bilingual teacher at
Blanton Elementary School in Austin, won in 2002, she
trained to be a yoga teacher and wrote a book of poetry,
she said.
ecampbell@statesman.com ; 445-3851
The finalists
The five Austin educators who are finalists for the
H-E-B Excellence in Education Awards:
Mary Alice Deike, 58
Principal, Akins High School
Deike has led the redesign of the school's curriculum
to include academies where students can choose
career-oriented classes.
Linda Webb, 45
Principal, Pillow Elementary School
In a school where 65 percent of students are
low-income, Webb wants her school's ethnically diverse
population to know that the school is a source of
support. She shared her breast cancer diagnosis with
students to show that it's important to help people
through life's difficulties.
Debra Hurst, 53
Teacher, Joe Dan Mills Elementary School
Hurst strives to develop a sense of community in her
kindergarten class. Students are rewarded for random
acts of kindness and work in groups at tables instead of
individual desks in her classroom.
David Journeay, 55
Teacher, LBJ High School
Journeay, a science teacher, has filled his classroom
with items from the many zoos, museums and labs he has
visited.
Tammy Phuong, 36
Teacher, McBee Elementary School
Phuong organized school-wide activities such as a
science fair, a mystery fest and an international fest.
Source: H-E-B
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