GREENSBORO, N.C. — Guilford County's principal and teacher of the year received top honors Thursday at the district's annual 'Celebration of Excellence' awards ceremony.
The surprised winners will each take home a cash reward but more importantly, they have a voice and will represent other educators across the county.
Teacher of the Year, Tammy White and Principal of the Year Ron Luciano joined WFMY News 2's Tracey McCain on the Good Morning Show. The educators talked about the opportunity to represent their peers.
"I'm honored to be able to represent Guilford County in this way," said White, who is the band director at Kiser Middle School. "I am a teacher because I love it," she said.
"It's surreal, I'm taking it all in," explained Luciano, Principal of the Year.
Luciano, who lead his school to unprecedented growth in the last eight years identified some of the top concerns in schools and offered solutions.
"I think our most immediate concern right now is our infrastructure," said Luciano. "Our buildings need work and they need it now. Our children need buildings that are well-maintained. They need the technology that moves them in and maintains them into the 21st century so we want to focus on that moving forward."
White, who has been in education for 25 years, echoed that same sentiment.
"Children need to know we care about them before we can teach them content."
One of the biggest concerns right now among educators statewide are pay raises and salaries. White says while that's important, she wants the community to understand that's not why educators teach.
"Teaching is such a blessing to me. I've been able to do so much from it then I could ever give to it. It is embedded in everything I do," said White.
Luciano says more needs to be done to keep and recruit outstanding teachers to Guilford County Schools. "The students that are coming out of our colleges now are top quality. We need to treat them with respect," he said.
Also, last night, the awards for Rookie Teacher of the Year and the Orr Mentor of the Year were handed out. You can read more about those awards on the Guilford County Schools website, by clicking here.