Five teachers and five support staff from Savannah-Chatham schools are finalists for the district's top honors. Winners are named at the Feb. 12 gala.

Ten Savannah-Chatham County Public School System employees are finalists for the district’s two highest staff honors. Five are up for 2028 District Teacher of the Year. Five are up for 2028 Instructional Support Person of the Year.

The district announced the finalists at a reception Wednesday in the Jenkins High School auditorium, it said in a news release. Each of the district’s 59 schools and programs had already picked its own representative. All of them crossed the stage to shake hands with board members and the superintendent.

The finalists

Teacher of the Year finalist School
Andrea Hall-Houston Woodville-Tompkins Technical and Career High School
Katherine Bernard Georgetown K-8 School
Jared Hall Esther F. Garrison School for the Arts
Vanessa Stultz Sarah Mills Hodge Elementary School
Nouline Sherman-Williams Windsor Forest Elementary School
Instructional Support Person of the Year finalist School
Leslie Walker Building Bridges High School Academy
Michael Barth Windsor Forest High School
Kimberly Crawford Savannah-Chatham E-Learning Academy
Jennifer West Esther F. Garrison School for the Arts
Olivia Lee-Taft New Hampstead High School

Two schools have a finalist on each list. Esther F. Garrison School for the Arts has Jared Hall and Jennifer West. Windsor Forest has a teacher at its elementary school and a support staff member at its high school.

How the finalists were chosen

Each teacher was first chosen by colleagues as Teacher of the Year for their own school. Each then wrote an essay application, modeled on the state Teacher of the Year application. Community readers scored the essays, and the top five became finalists, the district said.

The support staff award covers the people who keep a school running. The district lists nurses, paraprofessionals, custodians, cafeteria workers, counselor clerks, secretaries and school resource officers. Readers from inside the district scored their applications.

What happens next

  • Over the next month: classroom observations and panel interviews for the five teacher finalists.
  • Friday, Feb. 12, 2027: the district names both winners at its annual Excellence in Education Gala.
  • 2027-28 school year: the two winners lead the superintendent’s Professional Senate. They give updates at monthly school board meetings and speak for the school system.

The district posted more photos from the reception on its photo site.

What it means for you

If your child is at one of these nine schools, a finalist may be in their building. The teacher finalists will be observed in class over the coming weeks. Every school’s own Teacher of the Year and support staff representative was honored at the reception as well. Our Savannah public schools guide lists every school’s zone and report card.