The Greenbelt City Council hosted the 23rd Advisory Committee on Education (ACE) Educator Awards on Monday, March 26. ACE, formed in 1994 with an updated charter in 2007, serves as a link between the community and the city council to promote high quality schools for Greenbelt. This year, ACE sponsored reading clubs at two Greenbelt schools and awarded 24 grants totaling $11,757.62 to provide educational opportunities beyond the school curriculum.
The ACE Educator Awards recognize school-based adults who made exceptional contributions to Greenbelt schools. Award recipients can be any member of the school team: teacher, guidance counselor, other professional, support or building staff. ACE selects the awardees based on nominations from each school’s administration. The ACE Educator Awards complement the ACE Student Awards, which will be presented on Monday, May 14.
Eliza Hughes of Springhill Lake Elementary School won an ACE Educator Award for her excellence in teaching English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL). She joined the ESOL team at Springhill Lake Elementary in August 2013 and has become an integral part of the program. She was praised for her patient, caring and attentive attitude, as well as her diligence. For the past three years, Hughes has been working with the cross-grade level tutorial program, Reading Together. Every year, she finds the most qualified fifth grade ESOL students to train as tutors for second grade ESOL students struggling with reading comprehension. Hughes also was instrumental in creating a butterfly garden club at school last year.
Read the rest of this story in the March 29 News Review.