PHANEUF, SLADE RECEIVE EXCELLENCE IN TEACHING AWARDS
Anne Phaneuf and Nina Slade are the first recipients of the Nantucket Golf Club Foundation's Excellence in Teaching Award. The two Nantucket public school teachers were named at Tuesday afternoon's end of the year staff luncheon.

ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent

Nantucket Golf Club manager Thomas Bresette said the awards are another component of the foundation's goal "to support organizations that enrich our children's lives. I think educators are the most important part of that because they build the foundation for the future."

During the luncheon at the Cyrus Peirce School cafeteria, where faculty from the island's three public schools gathered as a group, Bresette acknowledged the contributions of those assembled. "Thank you all for answering the call to be teachers," he said.

When Phaneuf's and Slade's names were announced by Bresette, their colleagues gave them a standing ovation. In accepting her award, a teary-eyed Phaneuf said she was "in awe" of her fellow teachers. "I'm proud to be a teacher in the Nantucket public schools," she said.

The Nantucket Golf Club also sponsors the Nantucket Scholar program that for the last two years has awarded full, four year college scholarships to two Nantucket High School seniors.

There were 29 applicants for the Excellence in Teaching Award, from which nine finalists were chosen by a committee of seven educators that included high school principal George Kelly, Cyrus Peirce principal Lynn Kalman and elementary school principal Paul Koulouris.

Slade, who has taught at Nantucket Elementary School since 1985, and Phaneuf, who is in her tenth year at Nantucket High School, said the rigorous selection process, which included classroom observations and intensive curriculum examinations, helped them to better evaluate their own work as teachers.

Bresette said the teachers and school administrators gained from the experience. "It was a way for the administration to learn about teachers and for teachers to learn what the administration expects of them."

Each teacher also received $15,000 from the Nantucket Golf Club Foundation.

- Steve Sheppard