Educators of the year selected by chambers

Several veteran teachers, along with school administrators and a librarian, have been named winners of this year's educator of the year awards by the Jackson and Cape Girardeau chambers of commerce.

Jackson's educators of the year will officially be recognized during the chamber of commerce's annual banquet April 24 at the Knights of Columbus Hall. Cape Girardeau's chamber will hold an awards banquet May 1 at Drury Lodge.

The Jackson chamber recognizes educators in four categories: kindergarten through fifth grade; sixth through ninth grade; 10th through 12th grade; and nontraditional, such as counselors, administrators and librarians.

Nominees complete a two-page information questionnaire and attend an interview with the chamber's seven-member education committee, which is charged with choosing the top four winners.

"It's hard to choose just four, knowing that all the educators deserve the honor," said committee chairwoman Linda Puchbauer.

This year, Dedra McElrath, librarian at Jackson High School, was chosen as the winner in the nontraditional category. McElrath has been an educator for 28 years and has spent the last 18 in her current position.

Donna Kielhofner was chosen as the educator of the year in the kindergarten through fifth grade. She has taught first grade in Jackson schools for five years and has 22 years of teaching experience. She currently teaches at Orchard Elementary.

Jackson High School teacher David Wells is the educator of the year for grades 10 to 12. Wells has 26 years teaching experience in Jackson and is a sponsor for FFA. His students have received numerous awards for their participation in district and state events.

Debora Fehr-Mayfield was chosen as the educator of the year for sixth through ninth grades. She is a sixth-grade teacher at Jackson Middle School with 25 years of experience, the last five of which have been in her current position.

Awards in Cape

Nancy Bone, Lawrence Brookins, Dr. Mike Cowan and Brad Wittenborn received awards for primary and secondary schools from the chamber's education committee. Kenneth A. Heischmidt won university educator of the year, awarded by the university relations committee.

Bone is an eighth-grade science teacher at Central Junior High School. She began her career in 1980 in the Meadow Heights School District, left teaching in 1981 and returned to the vocation in 1993 as a science teacher in the Delta School District. She has worked in her current position since 1996.

Brookins, head varsity football coach and a teacher at Central High School, began his career in the Moberly School District in 1977. In 1984, he went to the Kirksville School District as an art specialist and department chair, as well as assistant coach for varsity football and track. He has also worked at Hickman High School and Jefferson Junior High School in Columbia, Mo., and has worked in the Cape Girardeau School District since 1996.

Cowan, who serves as the principal at Central High School, began his career in 1975 at Hickman High School teaching language arts and speech. In 1983, he moved to Clayton Senior High School where he taught language arts and speech, coached drama and debate and was an administrative assistant to the principal. In 1993, he took a job as principal at Valley Park Senior High School and became principal at Central in 2001.

Wittenborn, an assistant principal and physics teacher at Notre Dame Regional High School, began teaching at Notre Dame in 1978. In 1983, he began teaching programming and in 1987 he became a guidance counselor. He also coaches soccer.

Heischmidt began his career as a production accountant for Velsicol Chemical Co. in Marshall, Ill. He has also worked as an intern for Archer Daniels Midland Co.; as a marketing representative for the Catepillar tractor company; administrator for Eastern Kentucky University from 1977 to 1980; and teaching assistant at Southern Illinois University.

He landed his first college faculty position at Buena Vista College in Storm Lake, Iowa. He has taught at Southeast Missouri State University since 1985, and has been director of the master's degree program in business administration since 1996. He was a visiting professor at Aichi University's School of Business in Nagoya, Japan, in 1998.