Photo by Alan Olson Heather Haught, left, and Julia Clayton are honored as Marshall County’s Teacher and Service Personnel of the Year, respectively.

Two of Marshall County’s standout school employees were recognized for their efforts Tuesday, as Julia Clayton and Heather Haught were named as the county’s Service Personnel of the Year and Teacher of the Year, respectively.

Clayton, cafeteria manager at Glen Dale Elementary, was selected as Service Personnel of the Year, recognized by the district as an eager worker who starts early and frequently stays late. Superintendent Shelby Haines recalled around Easter, when Clayton had spearheaded an effort to distribute meals, candy and some other essentials to 17 families as an Easter surprise.

“She and a few ladies from Glen Dale arranged a bus to take Easter meals to a bunch of children around town; so here comes a bus, pulling up in front of the board office, and here comes the Easter Bunny hopping off, with these crazy ladies with boxes of candy.” Haines said. “They were having a great time doing a great deed, and Julie, we’re glad to have you in Marshall County.”

Clayton said the Easter extras were funded through a grant secured by Child Nutrition Director Debbie Derico, and that she was assisted by Glen Dale Elementary’s principal, nurse, and several aides.

“We picked 17 families that we thought would appreciate it, and they did. It humbled my heart. You could see the appreciation from the families when we arrived with the bunny, the big Easter basket, and a box of ham with all the trimmings,” she said. “Just to see the kids’ faces when we got off the bus, it was awesome.”

Haught, a first-grade teacher at McNinch Primary School, was introduced by curriculum director Woody Yoder as having reached out to her fellow McNinch teachers to find everyone’s motivation for why they started teaching. She took those responses and constructed a motivational wall to share those reasons with one another.

“Heather’s application came to the top because sometimes applications are flashy, with lots of different things that they do,” Yoder said. “Sometimes, the teacher talks about things we do every day, the programs we use every day, and she elevates those programs. That’s what stood out in her application this year.”

Haught said being a first-grade teacher is highly rewarding, and that she particularly enjoys instructing the kids in reading, as she gets to watch them swiftly develop and move onto the higher grades as strong readers.

“They are what make the day, is watching them succeed, make the small gains that become big gains by the end of the year. It’s my passion, and I love coming to work every day,” she said. “I love reading. Watching them turn that light bulb on and how much they progress from the beginning of the year to the end of the year is amazing. They come in, some of them thinking they can’t do it, and by the end, we’re sending them to second grade great readers.”

In other board business, Marshall County approved next year’s school calendar, which is set to begin August 24 and end May 24. Haines said she collaborated with the Marshall County Education Association, the faculty senate from each of the county’s schools, and the Service Personnel Committee to provide input on the calendar’s layout.

Marshall County will also be implementing five non-traditional instructional days on top of the five snow days. If the district needs to use more than five snow days, five days may be conducted using remote learning, rather than needing to make up that time outside of the planned calendar year. If those days go unused, Haines said, they’ll just be regular, in-school instruction days.

A public hearing period was held at Tuesday’s meeting, with no comments received.