By By Sheila Blackmon/The Meridian Star
May 10, 2001
DEKALB Four Kemper County teachers received cash awards at an appreciation tea held Wednesday at the Kemper County Business Incubator on Highway 16.
Mary Winns received the Teacher of the Year Award and a $1,000 savings bond. The runners-up Brenda Craig, Carol Warren and Dwight Fleming received $100 checks.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars Post #5042 in DeKalb provided the awards. The four teachers will also receive a free dinner at the Silver Star Resort and Casino provided by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.
Juanice Evans, Kemper County Chamber of Commerce executive director, said the Chamber and the Kemper County Civic League members have for several years honored local teachers with a tea. The VFW cash awards are something new.
Ed Van Devender, quartermaster of VFW Post #5042, said the selection process as quite formal. A teacher was nominated from each of the county's four schools the high school, the John C. Stennis Vocational Center and the two elementary schools.
Each nominee had to write a short essay on their philosophy of education, Van Devender said, and a committee of five a Kemper County schools' curriculum employee, two representatives from the VFW and two from EMCC graded the papers and selected a winner.
Alice Beaty, Kemper County schools' curriculum coordinator, said all four are excellent teachers.
Mary Winns is a third-grade teacher at West Kemper Elementary School, where she has also taught second grade. She has 25 years teaching experience 22 of them in Kemper County and three in Texas.
Brenda Craig has been teaching for nine years. She teaches geography, Mississippi studies, global studies and economics at Kemper County High School.
Carol Warren, a kindergarten teacher at East Kemper Elementary School in Scooba, has been teaching for six years.
Dwight Flemings is in his 19th year of teaching at the John C. Stennis Vocational Complex.
Sheila Blackmon is a staff writer for The Meridian Star. Call her at 693-1551, ext. 3275, or e-mail her at sblackmon@themeridianstar.com.