The York Region District School Board publicly recognized its two Teacher of the Year award recipients at last night’s Board meeting in the presence of trustees, senior staff and colleagues.

The 2011-12 recipients are Natasha Kaan of Middlefield Collegiate Institute (in Markham) and Mike Cerullo of Stuart Scott Public School in Newmarket (now at Wendat Village PS in Stouffville). The Teacher of the Year award honours one elementary and one secondary teacher each year who exemplify the Board’s mission, vision and values as well as other practices pertaining to their success in the classroom and their school.

“Mike and Natasha are representative of the thousands of YRDSB teachers whose passion for learning inspires them to support student achievement and well-being in York Region schools and communities,” said Chris Tulley, Associate Director of Education.

YRDSB teachers demonstrated their commitment to public education in various ways this summer:

• 359 teachers taught summer school
• 700 JK-Grade 12 teachers participated in Great Beginnings, a four-day professional development conference led by 50 teacher instructors
• 108 teachers participated in Summer Institute, Building Blocks for Kindergarten and Ontario Focused Intervention Partnership (OFIP) tutoring
• 522 teachers took professional development courses