Work harder to honor Sauk Valley teachers

The latest Illinois Teacher of the Year was announced over the weekend. A Chicago high school economics teacher, Kevin Rutter, won the honor at a Peoria banquet sponsored by the Illinois State Board of Education.

Rutter, chosen from 10 finalists, was recognized for his expertise, enthusiasm, and understanding of the needs of his students, according to State School Superintendent Christopher Koch. Rutter also coaches the Carl Schurz High School debate team.

We congratulate Rutter on his award. We’re sure the honor is justified.

However, as the decade nears its end, we can’t help but be disappointed that Sauk Valley teachers have been shut out again from even being named as finalists for this prestigious award.

None of this year’s finalists were from our region. Along with Mr. Rutter from Chicago, teachers from Edwardsville, Flossmoor, Hillsboro, Hoffman Estates, Mount Vernon, Oswego, Coulterville, Brussels and East St. Louis made it to the final round.

The same thing happened last year. We checked ISBE archives further back and could find no Sauk Valley teacher who made the finalist list during the past decade, let alone captured the top prize.

The closest finalists to our region were from Rockford, Rockton, Plano, Peoria, LaSalle and Geneseo.

Now come on. This region has more than its share of excellent teachers. These dedicated men and women have as much – if not more – expertise, enthusiasm and understanding as the winner from Chicago, who’s been a teacher for only 11 years.

We don’t know how many of the 175 nominations for this year’s Teacher of the Year award came from the Sauk Valley. We can’t help but think, however, that if more of our teachers were nominated, the region would start bringing home the recognition it deserves.

We encourage Lee, Whiteside, Ogle, Carroll and Bureau county educators and friends of education to make a greater effort to nominate their best teachers for statewide recognition. Nominations can be made by administrators, teachers, parents, students, or anyone who is aware of an outstanding educator’s work. Perhaps regional school superintendents, building administrators, teachers unions, or parent-teacher organizations could become involved in some way to boost the number of local nominations.