The Pike County School System announced its 2016-2017 Teachers of the Year at the system’s In-Service Day program Tuesday at Pike County High School.

The teachers honored were Karen Smith, Banks Primary School; Jessica Walker, Goshen Elementary School; Ansley Godwin, Goshen High School; Chris Saffold, Pike County Elementary School; and Raven Shepherd, Pike County High School.

Walker was named the overall Elementary Teacher of the Year and Shepherd was named the overall Secondary Teacher of the Year.

Donnell Carter, system administrative assistant, said all of the teachers recognized are hard working and deserving of the recognition.

“We congratulate all of the teachers on this well-deserved accomplishment,” Carter said. Karen Smith is a veteran third-grade teacher at Banks School. Jessica Walker is a veteran sixth-grade math teacher at Goshen Elementary School and Chris Saffold is a veteran third grade teacher at Pike County Elementary.

Ansley Godwin teaches Spanish at Goshen High School and is in her second year with the Pike County Schools.  Raven Shepherd teachers English at Pike County High School. This is her second year with Pike County Schools.

Walker and Shepherd will now be eligible for the state’s district competition.

The Pike County School System participates in the Alabama State Teacher of the Year program as a way of recognizing its outstanding educators and highlighting their accomplishments, Carter said.

“We follow the state’s suggestions for the nomination process,” Carter said. “We have a nominating committee at each school so each school selects the teacher they think, for various reasons, is deserving of the honor. Among those reasons are data, community service and, of course, excellence in the classroom.”

Each teacher selected for the recognition completes a state application and those applications are judged by internal readers and external readers.

“Those applications are read and scored and the system-wide elementary teacher and secondary teacher are named,” Carter said. 

The winners of the system-wide Teacher of the Year competition were awarded money to spend in their classrooms. The system-wide winners also received gift baskets.