The Education Foundation for Alachua County Public Schools announced Sidney Lanier School teacher Monica Benson as the district’s Teacher of the Year at the annual Robert W. Hughes Teacher of the Year ceremony Thursday.
Benson has worked at ACPS’s Sidney Lanier School for ten years, since requesting an internship there during her graduate studies at the University of Florida.
Benson said her choice of Sidney Lanier, which serves Alachua County students with significant disabilities, surprised people.
“I’ll never forget the response and the facial expressions I received,” Benson said in a press release. “But once I started working with our student population, I could never imagine myself anywhere else.”
Most of Benson’s current students are high schoolers, but she works with Sidney Lanier students of all ages, with a wide variety of needs, including emotional and behavioral disorders.
“It takes a special person to love, teach, care and advocate for students with profound disabilities,” Lanier Principal Buddy Kamman, who has worked with Benson for nine years, said in the release. “Monica is one of those rare people who is not only a fantastic teacher but is a kind soul who is a master at being a special educator.”
Benson was one of 40 teachers honored at the Teacher of the Year celebration, as the district recognizes one teacher from each school.
Hundreds of teachers, school and district staff members, students, parents, business representatives and other community members attended the celebration, hosted by The Education Foundation for Alachua County Public Schools and named for the former superintendent who established the recognition program.
“It’s an honor for The Foundation to host this event,” executive director Tia Brock-Paul said in the release. “We are committed to recognizing Alachua County’s teachers and uplifting the entire teaching profession.”
Each of the 40 honorees received $500 and gifts provided by local sponsors including premier sponsors Florida Credit Union, SWI Photography and Cox Communications.
“It was such a wonderful celebration,” Superintendent Kamela Patton said in the release. “I’m so impressed by the outpouring of support from the community for our honorees and the many other outstanding teachers they represent.”
The Foundation also gave special recognition to the elementary school and middle school finalists: Vanessa Lind, a second-grade teacher at Glen Springs Elementary School and Natalie Watkins, a seventh-grade math teacher at Ft. Clarke Middle School.
During her remarks at the event, Benson commented on the fact that the mascot for Sidney Lanier School is a unicorn.
“I learned from a very wise principal that a group of unicorns is called a ‘blessing,’” she said. “Our students are the biggest blessing in my life.”
Benson will go on to represent Alachua County Public Schools in the Florida Teacher of the Year program.