The Shadow
Cecilia Warden, a mathematics teacher at Covington High School, was named the Educator of the Year by the Covington Public School Division.
During a recognition ceremony Monday night at the Covington School Board meeting, Warden was named Educator of the Year at Covington High School.
The Educator of the Year award for Edgemont Primary School was Courtney Crawford and the Educator of the Year from Jeter-Watson Intermediate School was Kathy Stapleton.
Warden teaches Geometry and Algebra II at CHS.
After graduating from West Virginia University, Warden taught for 32 years in West Virginia, 30 of those at her alma mater, Mount Hope High School. She has a degree in mathematics and a master’s degree in Speech Communications from WVU. She has been a member of the CHS faculty for eight years.
She is a member and past president of Delta Kappa Gamma teachers’ society. Warden was selected High School Teacher of the Year in Fayette County, W.Va., in 1993.
She has also been selected as a member of Who’s Who Among American Teachers many times. She is also a member of the Virginia Council Teachers of Mathematics and the Virginia Education Association.
She resides in Valley Ridge with her husband, Abner, and her cat, Fuzzy. She plays flute in the Alleghany Highlands Orchestra, takes pictures of her grandson and reads books when time allows.
Kathy Stapleton is a fifth grade teacher at Jeter-Watson Intermediate School.
Her entire teaching career, 34 years, has been at Jeter-Watson. Along with fifth grade, she has also taught fourth, sixth and seventh grades.
She has been coaching seventh and eighth grade volleyball.
Stapleton is a graduate of James Madison University with a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education grades 4-7. She also attended Dabney S. Lancaster Community College before transferring to JMU.
She has two sons, Daniel and Andrew. Daniel will graduate from Virginia Tech in May. Andrew attended James Madison University.
Courtney Crawford, the Teacher of the Year at Edgemont Primary School, is a 1998 graduate of Covington High School. In 2000, she graduated from Dabney S. Lancaster Community College and in 2002, she received a bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education from Radford University.
She was hired by Covington in 2003 as an Early Intervention PALS teacher. In the fall of 2003, she was hired as a third grade teacher at Edgemont and is currently teaching third grade for the seventh year.
She resides in Alleghany County with her husband, Ashley, and three-year-old son Bryce.
“We have outstanding staff members,” Covington School Superintendent Tom Long said. “Their first concern is the benefit, welfare and education of your children,” Long added.
