Principal, Teachers Of The Year Recognized By HCPSS

HOWARD COUNTY, MD — The Howard County Public School System has announced its 2021 winners for Principal of the Year and Teachers of the Year. Denise Lancaster of Deep Run Elementary School was named 2021 Howard County Principal of the Year and will be the HCPSS nominee for Washington Post Principal of the Year. Amy Woolf of Oakland Mills Middle School was named Howard County's 2021 Maryland State Department of Education Teacher of the Year candidate and Niklas Berry of Oakland Mills High School was selected as a 2021 Washington Post Teacher of the Year nominee.

A reception for the trio along with the board of education and HCPSS Superintendent Michael Martirano has been planned for Sept. 23.

In her 24-year career with HCPSS, Lancaster has worked at several schools as a speech-language pathologist, assistant principal and principal. She assumed her current role as principal of DRES in 2016, where she has distinguished herself through her outstanding leadership, mentorship, collaboration, responsiveness, compassion and creativity.

Amy Woolf, a seventh grade science teacher, joined the Oakland Mills Middle School community in 2014. During her tenure, she has assumed a number of leadership roles and been actively involved in supporting students through extracurricular activities, such as the musical theatre club, the Oakland Mills High School and Oakland Mills Middle School Gender Sexuality Alliance, and Girls on the Run.

Niklas Berry began his career as a history teacher at Oakland Mills High School in 2014, subsequently serving as a teacher development liaison and currently as an instructional team leader.