LARRY DUNCAN

Larry Duncan is an unusual school board member in an unusual school district, Dallas County Schools, which is one of only two districts in Texas that help students but have no students. The district provides transportation services for most of the independent school districts in the county and also provides technological and counseling services to districts that request it.  

What makes Duncan so unusual isn’t his long record of public service before becoming a school district trustee, including four terms on Dallas City Council and serving as the president of the Dallas Homeowners League. Nor is it his community redevelopment efforts that turned one of the nation’s worst big-box apartment complexes into a model neighborhood. Nor is it even his commitment to turning confrontation into consensus, although that’s rare enough.  

What makes Duncan truly unique and a role model for other Texas school trustees is his commitment to employees and his work to build up NEA-Dallas membership as a way to bring about other important, long-overdue changes. Soon after he was elected to the Dallas County Schools board, he sought out the TSTA local and solicited its help.  

When Duncan took that momentous step, employees could be fired for any reason, or for no reason at all, and were denied due process rights. Nepotism and cronyism were commonly practiced. Employees were being dramatically underpaid in violation of federal labor law. To make a bad situation even worse, the district was paying a superintendent emeritus $200,000 a year for doing absolutely nothing. 

Within four years, Duncan and NEA-Dallas worked together to make all seven members of the board friendly to employees. Along the way, Duncan and the TSTA local persuaded the board to open workplaces to the association, to improve employee pay, to end nepotism and to create a team of first responders for school bus emergencies. 

Dallas County Schools may still have some problems to resolve, but having an entire school board committed to working closely with the TSTA local to address those problems makes for a positive work environment for employees. Without having Larry Duncan on the board, that would not have happened.  

GARY HILLIARD

North Lamar Independent School District has grown significantly over the last two decades. As a district trustee and sometimes president of the school board, Gary Hilliard has played a crucial role in shaping that growth with both vision and professional guidance. His commitment has gone well beyond what could reasonably be expected from a trustee. As the owner of a family contracting company, Hilliard has given the district the benefit of his expertise in the construction business. He was a valuable resource for building the new high school and for building one of the best athletic facilities in the region. 

All North Lamar ISD stakeholders have benefited immensely from having Hilliard’s expertise on the school board. He has led the board in providing students with the best possible learning environments. These are facilities that are structurally sound and efficient for the educational needs of students and teachers and good values for the taxpayers who invested their hard-earned dollars in these facilities. 

But Hilliard did not stop there. He and his family company are strong supporters of North Lamar’s education foundation, which gives scholarships to graduating seniors. He and his wife actively participate in the annual fundraiser and generously donate to the foundation. North Lamar teachers also greatly appreciate that Hilliard strongly supports their efforts to give their students a high-quality education. Unlike at least a few others around the state, this school board president pays careful attention to the concerns and needs of his district’s teachers, and he makes sure that the rest of the board does, too. 

Gary Hilliard is the kind of generous, dedicated, teacher-friendly school trustee and board president every district in Texas should have. The Texas State Teachers Association is proud and honored to present him with the Friend of Education Award. 

ERNESTO NIETO
FRANK J. TEJEDA AWARD FOR PUBLIC SERVICE 

A few years back, word spread through the National Hispanic Institute’s network of alumni and friends that the organization’s founder, Ernesto Nieto, was facing a health problem. 

“I couldn’t believe it,” Nieto told the San Antonio Express-News. “I got 15 letters and calls from NHI kids who are now doctors and who offered to treat me for free.” 

That’s the kind of loyalty and affection Nieto has inspired in the 70,000 young Latinas and Latinos he has worked with since he founded the National Hispanic Institute almost three decades ago, after a distinguished career in management in state and federal government agencies. 

More important than loyalty and affection is that so many of the young women and men Nieto has worked with have gone on to serve their communities in a wide range of professions. The training in leadership and community engagement they received at the institute significantly boosted their hopes for success in college, in professional or graduate school, and in their careers. 

The institute’s staff and extensive network of volunteers recruit high school freshmen with high grade averages from participating high schools for a four-year program that also emphasizes involving parents and training them. Participants and their families have to buy into the program by paying one-third of the tuition, with the institute picking up the other two-thirds of the cost.

About 98 percent of NHI’s alumni have earned high school diplomas, with virtually all of them enrolling in college and 90 percent earning bachelor’s degrees. About two-thirds have continued their education beyond that. 

Ernesto Nieto’s hard work through the National Hispanic Institute makes life better for tens of thousands of alumni, for the communities in which they work, and for so many of their neighbors. The Texas State Teachers Association is proud and honored to present him with the Frank J. Tejeda Award for Public Service. 

April Lyn Wilson
ERMALEE BOICE INSTRUCTIONAL ADVOCACY AWARD 

April Lyn Wilson was not a computer geek when she started teaching. But fairly quickly in her 14 years so far as a middle school and high school teacher, she came to understand how technology is changing so many aspects of our daily lives – including how teachers teach and students learn. So she committed herself to harnessing that technology to enhance her classroom effectiveness and the success of her students. 

This hasn’t always been easy to accomplish. At one school, when Wilson asked where she could find the computer for her classroom, she was told that all classrooms had television sets, but if she believed she needed any other equipment, she could write a grant. She did. As a result, she won the largest grant awarded in that district for a project to allow her students to teleconference with global classrooms. That’s the kind of innovation that can breathe new life into what many students see the distant, irrelevant subjects of world history and geography. 

Wilson tailors her lesson plans to meet the different learning styles of her students. For visual learners, she uses PowerPoint presentations, artwork, pictures and video clips. For auditory learners, she uses audio clips of speeches and music. For students who learn best using new technology, she provides many ways of doing that. Making learning interactive and more fun and stimulating for her students is Wilson’s daily goal. And she shares her expertise, technology and materials with her colleagues so they, too, can enhance their classroom effectiveness and the success of their students. 

Wilson does not believe that technology will “save” education, but it does add to the available options teachers have to reach more students in innovative ways. That belief, instead of using one-size-fits-all lesson plans that treat all students alike, motivates her to continue her own professional growth. Her example encourages her colleagues who aren’t computer geeks to see how they, too, can use technology to benefit themselves and their students. 

Wilson long ago committed herself to mentoring beginning teachers and college students who want to become teachers. Her own experience taught her how important that is to classroom success. She also knows how important a strong professional association is, at both the local level and the state level, and she actively participates in the College Station Education Association and TSTA as an advocate not only for other educators, but also for students. 

Every day she is in the classroom, April Wilson celebrates being part of a profession that is dynamic, creative and caring, a profession that allows lessons to move, dance and sing with the joy of learning. The Texas State Teachers Association is proud and honored to present her with the Ermalee Boice Instructional Advocacy Award. 

Joyce Coulter
WILLIE VELÁSQUEZ MEMORIAL AWARD 

Joyce Coulter is a dedicated advocate of cultural diversity in North Lamar Independent School District and its programs. She is dedicated to providing students with an awareness of cultural diversity and is an active proponent of multicultural programs for various student assemblies. North Lamar students and the community respond positively to her efforts. 

Coulter works not only with African-American students, but with all students, and that has been noted and is appreciated by her colleagues and community leaders. She was instrumental in organizing an ethnic dance group for North Lamar’s African-American students to enhance awareness of cultural diversity. 

Coulter has been the heartbeat of North Lamar High School’s annual Black History assembly held during February. Last year, the program brought a former Disney Outstanding Teacher of the Performing Arts, Michael Marks, to speak at the assembly. That generated positive news coverage for both the assembly and for the National Education Association, on whose executive committee Marks has served. 

This Willie Velásquez Award honors the memory and the work of the great Texas voting rights champion for whom it is named. The award is presented for work to eradicate inequities based on race, gender or ethnicity and for work to improve intergroup relations and understanding among racial/ethnic groups. For her ongoing work to do that in North Lamar ISD, the Texas State Teachers Association is proud and honored to present this award to Joyce Coulter. 

TSTA SCHOOL BELL AWARDS 

The 65,000-member Texas State Teachers Association honored journalists from traditional and new media for outstanding coverage of public education at an awards luncheon.  

Community understanding and support for public education have been significantly advanced by many Texas newspapers, radio stations, television stations and new media outlets through their interpretation of issues affecting public schools in our state. TSTA takes pride in sponsoring the annual TSTA School Bell Awards program in order to provide appropriate recognition of these outstanding contributions. 

“I rarely say that anyone else does work as important as those who work with children every day, but I would make an exception for the people we are honoring this afternoon,” TSTA President Donna New Haschke said in presenting the School Bell Awards for work done in 2007. “Education is a difficult topic to cover. The issues are complex, multifaceted and often boring. And at every level of government, we are witnessing attempts to make information less accessible to the people. Public education is the most important responsibility the Texas Constitution assigns our state’s government.”  

Outstanding News Coverage Editorials and Columns on Tax Rollback Elections

San Antonio Express-News

Outstanding Education Web Site

Joe Smith of TexasISD.com

Outstanding Education Blog
Mike Falick, Spring Branch ISD school board president

OUTSTANDING CONTINUOUS COVERAGE:

Adriana Arce, KGNS TV News, Laredo

Estela Casas, KVIA TV News, El Paso

Tricia Cortez, Laredo Morning Times

Peggy Fikac, Austin Bureau, San Antonio Express-News/Houston Chronicle

Kent Fischer, The Dallas Morning News

Tawnell Hobbs, The Dallas Morning News

Gary Scharrer, Austin Bureau, San Antonio Express-News/Houston Chronicle

Terrence Stutz, The Dallas Morning News

OUTSTANDING CONTINUING COLUMN:

Carlos Guerra, San Antonio Express-News

Clay Robison, Austin Bureau, Houston Chronicle/San Antonio Express-News

John Young, Waco Tribune-Herald

OUTSTANDING EDITORIAL:

Joe Hughes, Lubbock Avalanche Journal

OUTSTANDING EDUCATION COVERAGE:

Vanessa Salinas, Al Dia, Dallas

OUTSTANDING FEATURE STORY:

Kimberly Reeves, Austin Chronicle

Andrew Smith, The Dallas Morning News

Jason Trahan, The Dallas Morning News

OUTSTANDING SINGLE PROGRAM:

Peter Daut, KFOX TV News, El Paso