Honeygo Elementary Teacher Among 5 BCPS Teacher Of Year Finalists

PERRY HALL, MD — A fifth-grade teacher at Honeygo Elementary School is in the running for Baltimore County Public Schools Teacher of the Year. Officials made the announcement Friday morning that the committee tasked with selecting the honorees had narrowed their choices down to five.

Administrators, teachers, students and staff make up the Teacher of the Year selection committee. Among the five finalists for the honor is Jamie Metzgar of Honeygo Elementary School.

Metzgar, who is in her 13th year with Baltimore County Public Schools, has been nominated for Teacher of the Year at each of the three schools where she has worked, officials said: Joppa View Elementary School in Perry Hall, Grange Elementary School in Dundalk and Honeygo Elementary School in Perry Hall, which just opened with the 2018–2019 school year.

At Honeygo Elementary, Metzgar is teaching fifth grade. She lives in Perry Hall.

She will compete against four others who are in contention for the award: Christina DeSimone of Catonsville High School, Ronald McFadden of Southwest Academy in Gwynn Oak, Abigail Metcalf of Relay Elementary and Kristen Nielsen of Crossroads Center in Middle River.

"All five finalists are champions for equity in their classrooms, and I am grateful for their tireless efforts to support all students," Interim Superintendent Verletta White said in a statement. "I'm so proud of these dedicated educators for the ways they creatively promote literacy across the subject areas and a warm and welcoming school climate."

Watching #studentled morning meetings today allowed me to step back and see the #relationships and independence that has developed in this classroom since day 1. WOW! Teacher heart FULL #HoneygoOnTheRun @BaltCoPS @HoneygoElem @CharleneBehnke @dlynchbcps pic.twitter.com/C6yXAsNBhJ
— Jamie Metzgar (@JBarnes105) March 7, 2019

Turning the breaking down of the objective over to a student leader today. WOW! Let your students take the lead. Watch the respect, the trust, and the learning that you’ve instilled BLOOM! #studentled #RelationshipsMatter @BaltCoPS @HoneygoElem pic.twitter.com/PjGGvO2ckl
— Jamie Metzgar (@JBarnes105) April 10, 2019

The Baltimore County Public Schools 2019 Teacher of the Year will be named on April 24.

There were nominees from all 164 schools in the system, submitted by the principals.