Each month the Collinsville High School faculty honors a fellow faculty member with the “Faculty Member of the Month” designation. Here is a running list of those honored during the 2020-21 school year:
The August Faculty Member of the Month nomination included, “She has gone above and beyond her duty to make students feel welcome in her class and has redesigned her class to include things that her students want to learn and also what law enforcement officials expect from their officers. She is one of the founding faculty members of the Leo Club and has worked with her students and community leaders on numerous service projects. She also spent the fourth quarter and summer working to get the needs of students met with her work with the Kahok Closet project.” For these reasons, we name Ms. Rachel Gattuso the August Faculty Member of the Month!
The September Faculty Member of the Month has worked very hard to become an active and integral part of Collinsville High School. She has volunteered her time to assist a number of sports, clubs and organizations including the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Over the summer she wrote a grant for the health classes at CHS that the Illinois State Board of Education awarded to our school. This money will be a great resource for our kids at CHS. For these reasons, we name Mrs. Julie Hazzard the September Faculty Member of the Month!
The October Faculty Member of the Month wears many hats at CHS. Her nominators wrote, “She is a department chair, student organization sponsor, former class sponsor and teacher. Since the fourth quarter of last year, she has worked very hard to get as many students and faculty members as possible involved with fun activities while we were remote and also during this hybrid school year. Last week she spearheaded our Red Ribbon Week activities. She works hard on behalf of our special needs students each and every day.” And it is for these reasons we award the October Faculty Member of the Month to Mrs. Stacey Hartle!
The November Faculty Member of the Month got his start here at CHS as a student teacher in the Social Studies department . His nominators wrote, “He is one of the hardest working members of this staff. He gets here early and stays late. He goes above and beyond working with students outside of class to the extent that after they are no longer in his class you will still hear them say, “It’s not a problem, I will have Mr. Burgess help me” and he will. He gives up his lunch and prep to work with students. He tutors students in or out of his class whether he has ever had them or not, for no other reason than he wants to see them succeed. If a staff member needs a hand, he will always give it.” For these reasons, we award Mr. Wes Burgess the November Faculty Member of the Month.
The December Faculty Member of the Month is a product of CHS. As a CHS graduate, she has literally spent a lifetime being a Kahok. She was nominated by several colleagues. They wrote: “She had to update all COVID safety procedures to do Drivers Ed from June to present day. The overflow of paperwork to get caught up for all of our students has been tough and time consuming, but she has managed to do it. She manages the five cars and all of their maintenance, while overseeing a staff of drivers that she keeps involved and updated all of the time. She is always working to improve the overall job to keep it safe for us and the students we drive. She has some great ideas to improve the whole driver’s education program and is pushing to make those improvements at all levels.” For all of these reasons we name Mrs. Cara Gresh the December Faculty Member of the Month.
The January Faculty Member of the Month is a long serving aide at CHS but as his nominators write, he is so much more than that. His nominators wrote, ” He brings endless joy to teachers and students alike which is much needed during this time. Students love seeing him in the hallway and they all want to talk to him and his magnetic personality. He works hard both in and out of the classroom with Kahok nation. When students leave him, they always leave smiling. It may seem like a silly reason to nominate someone, but his easy going happiness is incomparable.” And for these reasons we award Mr. James Gurley as the January Faculty Member of the Month.
The February Faculty Member of the Month is relatively new to CHS but has made a powerful impact since her arrival. The team of teachers that nominated her said the following: “She is awesome! This young lady goes above and beyond her duties as an assistant. She comes into our classes with a positive attitude! She motivates the students. She calls/emails/Google meets with them to try and keep them on track. She is just a fabulous addition to the staff at CHS. As teachers, we are lucky to have her in our classrooms. But more importantly our students are very fortunate to have her!!” For all of these reasons we name Ms. Yaquelin Cornejo as the February Faculty Member of the Month!