Panel to select finalists for BBF outstanding educator award

MUNCIE, Ind.—Ball Brothers Foundation has announced the five-member panel that will select finalists for the foundation’s first “Excellence in Teaching Award.” The honor, which includes a $15,000 grant, is open to classroom educators with at least three years of teaching experience in any of Delaware County’s public school systems. Applications are due Feb. 1.

This year’s judges are Patricia Clark, associate professor in Ball State University’s Department of Elementary Education; Gary Pavlechko, director of teaching technology, in the Office of Educational Excellence, at Ball State; Kate Love-Jacobson, vice president for training at High Performance Government Network, Fort Wayne; Dale Basham, former board member, Muncie Community Schools Corp. and retired teacher and school administrator; and Chris LaMothe, chairman and CEO of Sherry Labs in Daleville, member of the Indiana Commission for Higher Education, and former president and CEO of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

“Our purpose is to bring public attention to the innovation that is evident every day in classrooms throughout the county,” said Jud Fisher, Ball Brothers Foundation president and chief operating officer. “We encourage each district to develop its own selection process and limit its number of candidates to two. That will be a challenge, but the good news is that we plan to make this program an annual event.”

Application forms are available on the Ball Brothers Foundation website (http://www.ballfdn.org/) and can be completed and filed electronically. Members of the foundation’s staff will select the overall winner from a field of three finalists. The $15,000 grant is a shared award with $5,000 going to the winner’s district, $5,000 going to the winner’s school, and $5,000 going to the winner’s classroom. “We ask only that the funds promote education innovation,” said Fisher.

In the past six years Ball Brothers Foundation has made more than $4.5 million in grants to education, but the “Excellence in Teaching Award” is the first initiative to honor individual educators. “Our hope is that candidates will serve as professional resources to their colleagues and to community organizations such as ours that support education at all grade levels,” said Fisher.