Back on May 20, a big yellow bus carrying county Superintendent Dr. Al Mijares, OCDE staff, media and sponsors paid a visit to five local schools. Their mission? To announce the Orange County Teachers of the Year for 2016.
As we previously reported, teachers Natalie Carias, Janis Leach, Lisa Moloney and Sharon Romeo all received the good news in their classrooms in front of cheering students, while Dr. Karah Street was surprised in the lobby of an administrative building on the campus of Saddleback College.
Our Media Services team was also on hand at each stop — with cameras rolling. To give you a little flavor of that day, we’ve put together a brief video that you can check out above. (Go ahead. We’ll wait.)
Of course there will be more celebrating in November during a special dinner at the Disneyland Hotel, where each of this year’s honorees are to receive a $15,000 prize from the Dr. James Hines Foundation, established by Orange County residents Bill and Sue Gross. Meanwhile, Disney sponsors handed out park passes and merchandise on the day of the announcements, and the SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union issued $500 checks to each recipient.