Wylie ISD honored 13 employees for outstanding work.

Officials named Teachers and Employees of the Year at the annual Wylie Way Awards Gala Friday, May 3. The event was held at Southfork Ranch.

All 20 campuses were represented, with more than 400 guests in attendance. Title sponsor was PBK Architects.

Maitelena Prado, a dual language teacher at Cox Elementary, was named Elementary Teacher of the Year and Windi Fuller, a language arts teacher at Cooper Junior High, was named Secondary Teacher of the Year.

They each received a plaque, a special name badge and a goodie bag filled with items donated by local business and sponsors. The winners will also drive an all-expenses-paid new car for six months, courtesy of Toyota of Rockwall.

Earlier in the year, each campus selected a teacher of the year. These finalists submitted an essay and completed an interview with a group of community members, who then chose two overall district winners.

The winners were chosen for their professionalism, dedication, innovation, creativity, ability to motivate and excellence in teaching.

Paraprofessionals of the Year are Laura Ortiz from Bush Elementary and Joe Corbitt from Wylie High School. They received goodie bags and six months of complimentary house cleaning.

Departmental Employees of the Year are Jason Moss (maintenance), Ricardo Jones (trades), Javier Guerrero (grounds), Carolina Araiza (custodian), Pam Howard (student nutrition), Asa Hooper (transportation), Larry Dockery (driver), Cheyenne Helsley (bus aide) and Kim Corso (nurse).

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From Staff Reports • [email protected]