Pinellas County Schools names Support Employee of the Year | News

Largo, Florida -- On Jan. 18, Pinellas County Schools recognized Debra Stotts as their 2013 Support Employee of the Year during a breakfast celebration at Feather Sound Country Club.

Stotts, an office clerk at Largo Middle School, will represent the district's more that 6,300 full- and part-time support employees in the Florida School-Related Employee of the Year program this spring.

Stotts won the Indirect Involvement with Students category.

"The support employees do a lot in the school,” Stotts said. “So much more that they, most people, don't even know what we do in the school.  We may make a child's day, just in a matter of seconds, saying hi, hello, how are you.  So, to have us recognized, for what we do, I think is very important."

Pinellas County Schools says Stotts, a six-year veteran of Pinellas County Schools, was nominated for her leadership, volunteerism, community outreach efforts and the relationships she builds with students and parents.

Stotts mentors three students, volunteered more than 700 hours at Largo Middle and Largo High schools during the 2011-12 school year and serves as Largo Middle’s PTSA president. Stotts has organized numerous safety initiatives, school fundraisers and community service projects.

“She has always been one to arrive early and stay late. She is always the first to ask if there is something she can do to help…,” said Largo Middle Assistant Principal Gail George-Coppens in a nomination letter. “It is always Debbie who can appraise a task and devise methods by which it can be done more efficiently.”

Irma Vargas, a bilingual assistant at Skycrest Elementary School, won the Direct Involvement with Students category, and Katherine Dickinson, a secretary/bookkeeper at Curlew Creek Elementary School, won the Limited Involvement with Students category.

The other finalists were:

Direct Involvement with Students

• Lori Gooding, ESE Associate, Dunedin Elementary School

• Amy Putnam, Cypress Woods Elementary, High Needs Associate

Indirect Involvement with Students

• Tameaka Brown, Office Clerk I, Gibbs High School

• Essie Sneed, Secretary/Bookkeeper, Tomlinson Adult Learning Center

Limited Involvement with Students

• Kristy Hayes, Secretary/Bookkeeper, Ponce de Leon Elementary School

• Lisa Packard, Clerk Specialist I, Administration Building

The semifinalists were:

Direct Involvement with Students

• Aymarah Benz, ESE Associate, Bauder Elementary School

• Gregory Hinton, Campus Monitor, Lakewood High School

• Sandra Sumner, ESE Assistant, Shore Acres Elementary School

• Kathy Weller, Title I Paraprofessional, Blanton Elementary School

Indirect Involvement with Students

• Mary Heldt, Senior Data Technician, East Lake High School

• Anita Herman, Secretary/Bookkeeper, Frontier Elementary School

• Cassandra Holt, Secretary/Bookkeeper, James B. Sanderlin PK-8 IB World School

• Melodie Moreno, Family & Community Liaison, Leila G. Davis Elementary School

Limited Involvement with Students

• Patrick Curry, Head Plant Operator, Melrose Elementary School

• Jeffrey Frey, Carpenter Journeyman, Walter Pownall Service Center

• Hilda Henley, Secretary to Assistant Superintendent, Administration Building

• Jerry Reynolds, Head Plant Operator, Countryside High School

Info courtesy Pinellas County Schools.