BY KURT MOFFETT
REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN
WINSTED — A veteran library media specialist at the Gilbert School has won the Connecticut Association of Schools’ high school exemplary educator of the year award.
Jody Pillar, who has worked at Gilbert for 17 years, was selected among five finalists, Gilbert Principal Alan J. Strauss said. This was the first time the school had entered the competition.
The announcement comes just three weeks after Gilbert named its first-ever teacher of the year, seventh-grade social studies teacher Cynthia Geiger.
The Connecticut Association of Schools is a nonprofit that represents 1,200 schools statewide. Twenty years ago, it started a teacher of the year program but changed the name to educator of the year five years ago to avoid confusion with the state Department of Education’s teacher of the year program, which began in 1952. The state department’s teacher of the year — for which Geiger is in the running — is eligible for national honors. Strauss said he has changed the philosophy at the school about recognizing staff for their work.
“Excellence in everything we do has to be rewarded,” he said.