42nd. Annual Award
The 2024 Educator of the Year is Derek Bent, who has been make a difference in his students lives at the Amesbury Middle, for 27 years. Derek was nominated by Julie Sisson, who's letter read by Amesbury Rotarian; Madison Barns. Joining Derek for the award presentation were his daughter Lily, and son Ethan. Recognition of Derek's work, contributions and accomplishments were Amesbury Superintendent (and Amesbury Rotarian); Elizabeth McAndrews, and Amesbury Middle School; Jayne Vilandenis. We were honored by the presence of past recipients of this award; Marianne Curry and her husband Mike, 2000, and Stacey Fijalkowski, 2001.
Previous Recipients:
| Barbara Leary 1983 |
| Barbara Foster 1984 |
| Peter Hoyt 1985 |
| Patricia Hoyt 1986 |
| Rose Marie Bailey 1987 |
| Linda Young 1988 |
| Nina Tassinari 1989 |
| Maria Ferrandini 1990 |
| Glenn Peterson 1991 |
| Geraldine Minihan 1992 |
| Marcia Stellmach 1993 |
| Bill Claffey 1994 |
| John Swistak 1995 |
| Marlene Schroeder 1996 |
| Kathy Scholtz 1997 |
| Peggy Laufer 1998 |
| Albert MacDonald, Jr. 1999 |
| Christopher Perry 2000 |
| Jim Cassidy 2001 |
| Billie McLane 2002 |
| Steven O’Connor 2003 |
| Tom Horan 2004 |
| Karen Iworsky 2005 |
| Suzanne Morin 2006 |
| John Lyman 2007 |
| Patty Bradley 2008 |
| Bruce McBrien 2009 |
| Maureen Hardin 2010 |
| Anita Marsh 2011 |
| Gale Regis 2012 |
| Liz Morris 2013 |
| Mark Casto 2014 |
| Bethany Noseworthy 2015 |
| Maryanne Dower 2016 |
Leslie Barnaby 2017 Jessica Regis 2018 |
| Dr. Kristen Walsh 2019 |
| Marianne Curry 2020 |
Stacey Fijalkowski 2021 Courtney Lovett, 2022 Diedre Vachon, 2023 Derek Bent, 2024 |
The Amesbury Rotary Club is committed to serving the youth of our community. We sponsor scholarships and offer interest-free loans to Amesbury students. We also honor one of the many outstanding educators in our school system each year. This award recognizes professional excellence and the performance of outstanding service in the Amesbury School System. Eligibility requirements as follows:
Must teach in the Amesbury School System - this includes all classroom/special education teachers and specialists in technology, art, music, library, guidance counselors, etc. Administrators are not eligible.
Must have been employed in the Amesbury School System for at least five years.
Must not plan on retiring within the next two years.
Must not be a previous recipient.
42 years and counting
“This is the 42nd.. year that the Amesbury Rotary Club will be giving an Educator of the Year award,” said Donna Collins, who heads the nominating committee., “which recognizes professional excellence." The Amesbury Rotary Club takes nominations from students, parents, co-workers, anyone in the community, Collins said. “We get all these letters and I screen them. The teachers have to have taught in Amesbury for at least five years and not plan to retire within the next two years.”
After Collins sifts through the nomination letters and verifies eligibility with the school department, the committee, which includes three or four Rotarians and four past winners, reviews all eligible nominations. Rotarians make the final decision,” she said, “but the input from the teachers is very valuable to us in making that decision.”
For event pictures, please click on the READ MORE button on the lower right of this screen
