Poplar Bluff R-I names Burnett Teacher of Year

Poplar Bluff R-I

names Burnett

Teacher of Year

Humbling, excited and privileged are words Cathy Burnett used Friday to describe being named Poplar Bluff R-I’s Teacher of the Year. Burnett will represent the district in the Missouri Regional Teacher of the Year contest for 2021-2022.

“I’ve been very humbled about this whole experience,” Burnett said. “It’s exciting. I cried when I got the news.”

She is also Eugene Field Elementary Teacher of the Year, where she co-teaches first and second grade special education.

Calling herself “very privileged to be picked out of all the well deserved applicants,” she said, “this is my 27th year of teaching and then my 14th, though, in the Poplar Bluff schools.”

While everybody has been congratulating her, she may have been the last one in her school to find out.

“I was in the middle of first grade reading and one of my aides had texted me congratulations,” she said. “I was like, what is going on? Before I could pull up the email, my co-teacher said ‘you’re District Teacher of the Year.’”

Burnett attributes receiving the honor “to the hard work that I put in and the caring that I have for all my students.”

Admitting “I get along pretty much with everybody,” Burnett said. “When I see a need or something that needs to be done, I usually volunteer to do it.

Away from school, her activities are “very family oriented. I live in Poplar Bluff. Every weekend, I’m spending time with my parents, my sister and my niece. We always have family dinners.”

Others honored are: middle school grade-span Teacher of the Year, Christine East; and secondary grade-span Teacher of the Year, Pamela Davis.

Building teachers of the year are: technical career center, Brandon Moon; Mark Twain, Laura Powell; middle school, Kristi Sittig; early childhood center, Michelle Caswell; Lake Road, Leslie Riefle; kindergarten center, Mary Barousse; Oak Grove, Staci Barker; and O’Neal, Christina Spencer.

Of the announcement, Fara Jones, R-I assistant superintendent of personnel said, “Congratulations to each of you and the nominees on behalf of the Poplar Bluff Board of Education, administration, faculty, and staff. You have been selected and recognized for the qualities you espouse as a teacher and for your impact as a building leader. We appreciate you and are proud of the honor you have received.”

The Greater Poplar Bluff Area Chamber of Commerce Teacher of the Year Ceremony will be April 29 in the Poplar Bluff High School cafeteria. Tickets will be available at the central office. The Poplar Bluff R-I Teacher of the Year Luncheon will be at 11 a.m. May 4 at the Westwood Center.