Bernards Schools Name Teachers of the Year

The Bernards Township Board of Education on Monday introduced the Teachers of the Year for 2013 from each of the township's six schools, with a brief description from that school's administrators about what makes that educator special.

This year's Teachers of the Year are: Jennifer Cerra, Liberty Corner Elementary School elementary education teacher; Lyndsey Schaefer, music teacher at the Cedar Hill Elementary School; Liana La Vecchia, physical education teacher at Oak Street Elementary School; Beverly Francis, librarian at the Mount Prospect Elementary School;  Nick Beykirch, technology education teacher at the William Annin Middle School; and Merle Preston, school psychologist at Ridge High School.

"It's on nights like this I feel so good about what we do in Bernards Township," said Bernards Schools Superintendent Nick Markarian, after reading information about each of the teachers chosen.

All of the teachers were at Monday's school board meeting, along with a group of dozens of other teachers, family and friends.

The teachers of the year are selected by their peers, Markarian added later in the week.

Preston, in her role as school psychologist, was credited with helping to integrate students with special needs into the Ridge community, and starting the high school's special needs mentoring program. In a description about Preston, Principal Frank Howlett said she is very successful in directing students toward their goals.

Beykirch has been technology and industrial arts teacher for eight years at William Annin, teaching all grade levels at the middle school, Markarian said, reading the information from the school's administration.

Beykirch teaches six classes daily along with holding early morning sessions at which students can not only seek extra help, but also work on projects, and learn more, Markarian said. Beykirch also has worked on the school courtyard and William Annin's spring musicals, he said.

Schaefer, who has appeared singing and dancing in multiple productions in her own performing arts ventures, takes a "passionate approach" to teaching chorus, the dramatic arts, and other aspects of music and the arts at Cedar Hill, said Principal Joseph Mollica, that school's principal. He said she has a special gift for relating to students. In written comments, Schaefer said she wants her students to explore and realize their own talents.

Jennifer Cerra, who has taught second, third and fourth grade classes at the Liberty Corner School, also provides support for special education students in the resource room. She had written that she felt it was inevitable she would become a teacher; as a child, she had lined up her dolls in front of a chalk board for lessons.

Through teaching children, which she called a privilege, Cerra said she feels that she has "the power to change the world."

Beverly Francis, who with her mascot, Webster, presides over the library at the Mount Prospect School, said that she feels the library can provide the key to the information age. She has been in the library at Mount Prospect since 2000, where she particularly encourages students to read their free choices, Markarian read.

Beykirch's two-year-old son, Ben, ran to the front of the auditorium and joined in the applause for his dad.