Longtime Toppenish School District educator Madeline Dunn has a new credit to her lengthy resume:  2009-2010 Educational Service District 105 Regional Teacher of the Year! Her selection was announced during a surprise presentation at the Toppenish School District's all-staff pre-service meeting on September 3.

Dunn will serve as South Central Washington’s regional nominee for Washington State Teacher of the Year. She will be one of nine educators from throughout the state being interviewed by an OSPI selection committee on Sept. 25, with the statewide finalist to be announced at Seattle’s Experience Music Project on Sept. 28.

Dunn, who was also named Toppenish School District’s Teacher of the Year in 2008, is entering her ninth year this fall as a reading coach for kindergarten through 5^th grade students at Garfield Elementary School.  Since she became a reading coach, the school’s 4^th grade WASL scores in reading have improved by more than 100%. Her colleagues credit Dunn’s student mentoring to be instrumental in Garfield Elementary being named as one of OSPI’s statewide “Schools of Distinction” in 2007. 

After teaching 3^rd grade for two years in Spokane, Dunn came to the Toppenish School District in 1972, originally as a 6^th grade teacher at the old Buena Elementary School.  She then taught 4^th grade at Toppenish from 1978 to 2001, before moving into her current position. 

ESD 105 Supt. Jane Gutting offers congratulations as Toppenish Supt. Steve Myers presents bouquet to Madeline Dunn.

In her Regional Teacher of the Year application materials, Dunn wrote:  “As children’s first teachers, family members have a profound and continuing effect on their children’s growth and development and, for better or worse, what children experience outside school affects their performance in school.  A consistent, complemented balance will help to enhance children’s healthy development, learning, and success in school and in life.”

Toppenish School District Supt. Steve Myers said: “Madeline personalizes instruction for each student with the attitude that the student will meet or exceed the learning target. Through her eyes, every piece of student data has a name and relationship imprinted in her memory.  Her brilliance in literacy coupled with her amazing skill of connecting with students and staff have inspired all of us to perform at a higher level.  On a daily basis she models that learning is a joint venture and, as a result, many educators in our district have become passionate about improving their practice.”

Dunn says she wanted to be a teacher ever since she was an elementary school student, and through high school often tutored classmates who were having difficulty.

“I truly believe that one of the greatest things we can give our children is the gift of being able to read,” Dunn wrote in her application.  “One of the most rewarding things about being a teacher is to know that each and every day you are touching the lives and giving hope through education to your students.”

Supt. Gutting, Garfield Elementary Principal Matt Piper, Dunn, and Supt. Myers

This is the second time in three years that the ESD 105 Regional Teacher of the Year has come from Toppenish. Former district teacher Brenda Marler received the regional award for 2007-2008.

Dunn was among five nominees from four school districts for the 2009-2010 ESD 105 Regional Teacher of the Year.  This year’s selection committee was comprised of Naches parent and state representative Charles Ross, Kittitas parent Deneen Mulvaney, ESD 105 Board of Directors member Maggie Perez of Yakima, West Valley parent and Russillo’s restaurant manager Mike Bastinelli, and Selah High School student body president Joel Freeborn.

Photos from the Washington State Teacher of the Year announcement ceremony at Seattle's Experience Music Project & Science Fiction Museum
(September 28, 2009):

Top left: The nine regional candidates for 2010 Washington State Teacher of the Year.
Top right: Madeline Dunn receives recognition from OSPI Supt. Randy Dorn.
Bottom left: 2010 Washington State Teacher of the Year Jamie Yoos (a chemistry teacher at Bellingham High School) poses with Madeline Dunn.
Bottom right: The new Washington State Teacher of the Year looks at a guidebook and scrapbook presented to him by his predecessor, 2009 Washington State Teacher of the Year Susan Johnson of Cle Elum-Roslyn High School.