• The district’s Teacher of the Year selection process begins when each school’s Teacher of the Year from the previous year and the principal explain the teacher selection process to all their certified employees.

    Every school then puts together a ballot with a list of teachers who are eligible to serve as Teacher of the Year, and the voting begins. The teacher who receives the most votes becomes the school’s new Teacher of the Year and continues on to the second round of competition.

    This round uses six teams of judges to methodically and carefully review and score applications from all 31 school-level Teachers of the Year.

    The district has 17 elementary schools, eight middle schools, five high schools and one technology center, reflected in the three elementary teams, two middle-level teams and one high school team. The teachers with the highest application scores from the six teams become finalists, resulting in 10 finalists.

    The 10 finalists move on to the third round, which involves another three teams of judges. One team virtually conducts interviews with the finalists. A second team observes each finalist teaching. A third team scores their applications.

    Each team uses a different rubric. There is one rubric to score the observation round, a second rubric to score the interview round, and still another rubric for scoring the applications.

    District TOY coordinators total the scores for each finalist for classroom observation, virtual interview and application. The finalist with the highest overall total becomes District Teacher of the Year and will represent Lexington District One in next year’s state-level Teacher of the Year competition.