Newberg School District employees celebrated the close of the school year by recognizing award winners, retirees and service to schools at the annual Crystal Apple Awards program held at the Chehalem Cultural Center June 15, 2016.

Five employees were recognized for their outstanding service. Parents, students, staff and community members submitted nearly 100 nominations for teachers and support staff. A panel of six community members independently judged the nominations on how they contributed to district goals. Crystal Apple recipients are:

Katie Worthington – Outstanding Educational Assistant. Katie is an educational assistant at Chehalem Valley Middle School.
Maria Fuhrmann – Outstanding Classified Employee. Maria is a curriculum, assessment and data assistant service the school district.
Missy Love – Outstanding Elementary Teacher. Missy teaches in the Social Emotional Academic Learning (SEAL) Program at Joan Austin Elementary School.
Drew Gallagher – Outstanding Middle School Teacher. Drew teaches language arts and social studies at Mountain View Middle School.
Jane Eilert – Outstanding High School Teacher. Jane teaches culinary and child development classes at Newberg High School.

The 21st Century Inspiration Award was presented to the Mabel Rush 1st Grade Innovation Team, which includes Christy Smith, Jessica Fox and Sarah Wilmont.

District employees nominated thirteen teams for the district’s Collaboration Award. Taking top honors was the Chehalem Valley Innovation Team of Kim McDonough, Jessie Rainwater, Wendy Halstead, Bruce Carvahlo, Debbie Tofte, Sarah Brown, Wendy Garland, Bethany Stoller and Kim Silva.

Retiring staff

The school district also said farewell to thirteen retiring employees who represent 264 years of teaching experience, office and specialist expertise. Retiring staff members are:

Bob Beckner, Newberg High School ag teacher and FFA advisor (40 years)
Gloria Dreske, educational assistant at Ewing Young and Dundee (35 years)
Bonnie Kjersten, Chehalem Valley Middle School kitchen manager (25 years)
Kay Passmore, 4th grade teacher at Mabel Rush Elementary (25 years)
Juli Cone, Mabel Rush Elementary kindergarten teacher (25 years)
Grace Bolliger, Antonia Crater Elementary School secretary (22 years)
Sandy Crosland, Dundee Elementary kindergarten teacher (18 years)
Nola Kunze, speech language pathologist at Newberg High School (17 years)
Sue Bertrand, 2nd grade teacher at Dundee Elementary (17 years)
Kathleen Zegar, educational assistant at Catalyst (11 years)
Vickie Sander, special education assistant at Newberg High School (11 years)
Mark Thornburg, school psychologist at Joan Austin and Mabel Rush elementary schools (10 years)
Dorothy Roholt, family and consumer studies teacher at Newberg High School (8 years)

Years of service recognized

Employees marking five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five,  thirty and forty years of service to the school district were also honored including:

40 YEARS
Bob Beckner

30 YEARS
Hugh Anderson, Stacy Kirk

25 YEARS
Kris Bower, July Cone, Laura L. Flowers, Kathy Sabin, Bonnie Kjersten, Denise Mapes, Kay Passmore

20 YEARS
Jenn Bass, Francisco “Paco” Benetti, Barb Catts, Carleen Johnson, Jennifer Johnston, Alma Montaño, Tashia Murchison, Liam O’Doherty, Amy Ouellette, Jim Robinson, Beverly Teal

15 YEARS
Susan Anderson, Molly Baker, Nancy Becker, Audie Cooper, Heather Danielson, Martha Frack, Shelly Grant, John Halstead, Bill Leach, David Leslie, Barbara Mann, Kim Peck, Lori P. Peebles, Loree Reinhardt, Jennifer Schneider, Maureen Soumokil, Denise Torres

10 YEARS
Janelle Almquist, , Ann Beausoliel, Lori Britton, Jeannie Buck, Ben Burkhardt, Janet Clark, Linda Converse, Cheryl Crousser, Jane Eilert, Beth Hinson, Beth Hinson, Jana Jasso, Heidi King, Rachele K. Lane, Anita Leffler, Owen Lowe, Marilyn Mayfield, Keith Marshall, Lori Meissner, Patricia Merrick, Tina Oathes, Janet Pettitt, Mary Pinkston, Marc Rott, Jessica Spang, Celeste Stone, Joel Tanner, Mark Thornburg, Michael Weston,  Kristine Wolcott, Cathi Young, Kristin Zegar, Nick Zolotoff

5 YEARS
Maria Acosta, Michael Alpert, Alyssa Bakanoff, Stafford Boyd, Sandra Byers, Christy Crisman, Brian Curcio, Stefan Czarnecki, Jeffrey Dale, Margaret Dye, Jennifer Esmond, Heidi Fraser, Pamela Hayes, Lisa Joyce, Bryan Long, Todd Morgan, Luke Neff, Stephanie O’Dell, Lisa Privette, Diane Reichenback, jillian Risher, Mikaela Schamp, Meghan Schletty, Tifanie Schmidt, Bethany Stoller, Sarah Suing, Deborah Tofte, Twenge, Shannon Vandehey, Candice Waibel, Kari Willcuts, Sarah Wilmot, Kathryn Worthington, Kelly Zatterberg.