Tiffany Lewis is Youngstown 2019 Teacher of the Year

By SEAN BARRON

news@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Tiffany Lewis was summoned to her school’s library for what she assumed would be a staff meeting.

Much to her surprise, however, she got more than she bargained for.

“I’m excited, humbled and super-stoked. I’m so thankful and appreciative,” Lewis said after learning she had been named the Youngstown City Schools District’s 2019 Teacher of the Year.

Lewis, a Volney Rogers Elementary School first-grade teacher, was honored for her achievement during a ceremony Wednesday morning at the school, 2400 S. Schenley Ave., on the West Side.

Every year, principals from each city school choose a teacher who had submitted an application and written an essay, then a team of administrative personnel visits their classrooms to assess student engagement and instructional skills. Lewis was selected from a list of 14 district candidates, and she will be entered in the Ohio Department of Education’s Teacher of the Year process.

“I always knew I wanted to be a teacher. Nothing else was on my radar,” said Lewis, who comes from a family of educators and has taught 13 years, including seven in the district.

Helping her students in their academic and personal growth, watching them develop as readers, taking advantage of professional-development opportunities and providing tools for the first-graders to form connections and relationships in the classroom and beyond are top priorities for her, noted Lewis, who came to the ceremony with her husband, Dominic Lewis, and daughters Ava, 6, and Jordyn, 10.

“My students have a lot more ownership in their learning. I’m setting them up for real-world success,” Lewis said, adding that she often implements new resources and ideas partly to avoid creating a classroom that is stagnant.

Bearing witness to her students’ personal and academic growth each year, including their reading acumen, is another highly rewarding aspect of her position, she continued.

“She is determined; she is fierce. I mean, she dedicates her life to our students,” Principal Kelly Weeks observed. “She raises the bar, pushes them to reach their potential and goes above and beyond the call of duty for her students.”

Weeks added Lewis also celebrates her students’ small accomplishments while mastering an ability to balance encouraging them to achieve academically with allowing them to know they’re being supported and loved.

“She’s everything I’d want in a teacher for my child,” Weeks continued. “She’s a leader in every aspect of the word.”

“She definitely goes the extra mile to support all of her students,” added Christine Sawicki, the district’s chief academic officer.

TEACHER OF THE YEAR

Youngstown schools

The 2019 14 nominees will be honored during a dinner buffet at 5:30 p.m. May 9 at the Tyler Mahoning Valley History Center on West Federal Street in downtown Youngstown. Tickets are $25 apiece and can be obtained by calling Renita Dodson at 330-744-6900.

Tiffany Lewis, first-grade teacher at Volney Rogers Elementary School, 2019 Teacher of the Year.

Nicole Angermeier, first grade, Taft Elementary School.

Quiana S. Faison, ninth-grade English, Chaney High School.

Jacqueline Groves, teaches grades four through eight in the autism unit at William Holmes McGuffey Elementary.

Kristen Jaros, seventh- and eighth-grade social studies, Kirkmere Elementary.

Elaine Mathews, fifth grade, Paul C. Bunn Elementary.

Kim Moore, social studies, East High School.

Victoria Moore, second grade, Wilson Elementary.

Mary Ramhoff, sixth grade, Rayen Early College Middle School.

Cassandra Slaubaugh, science, Rayen Early College.

Kelly Swiger, sixth- through eighth-grade science, Harding Elementary.

Wade Warner, second grade, Williamson Elementary.

Kaylor White, early-childhood instructor, Choffin Career & Technical Center.

Christine Williams, kindergarten through eighth-grade art, Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary.

Source: Youngstown City Schools