The Hilton Central Schools Teachers Association (HCSTA) 2023 Teacher of the Year Award was presented at the annual staff convocation at Hilton High School on September 5. This year’s honoree is Laurie Steele-Sperber, Northwood Elementary School art teacher.
Steele-Sperber has been teaching in Hilton since 2000 and has been a Hilton Cadet since she entered kindergarten. In the spring of 1995, Steele-Sperber was awarded the HCSTA Teacher’s Memorial Scholarship, given to outstanding Hilton seniors pursuing a degree in education.
Steele-Sperber truly believes that everyone is an artist, and that art can be used to effect positive change in the world. Her list of projects and school involvement is long. She runs multiple after-school art clubs; organizes and displays artwork from every student in the Northwood Art Show; displays student art in the Parma Public Library and Rochester Gem Show; and submits student art to the NYSATA Region 2 Student Art Show. Steele-Sperber also finds a character education theme every year based on a children’s book and creates a corresponding community art project. For the Empty Bowls charity art show and meal, she helps students create bowls and other pieces out of clay, raising money for Heifer International and Hilton Cadet Cupboard.
Every year, Steele-Sperber has all Northwood students create a collaborative fingerprint art piece to support the school’s Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports (PBIS) theme and helps plan the assembly. She’s also been instrumental in having students create a kindness rock garden, helping with Snow Fun days, participating in the Cadet Carnival to benefit the Hilton Central Schools Teacher Association (HCSTA) Scholarship Fund, serving as staff liaison for the VEPTO parent-teacher organization, and helping to design the Northwood Yearbook.
When presented with her award, Steele-Sperber was joined by husband, Dan Sperber, also a Hilton graduate and employee; retirees and former Teachers of the Year, Cheryl Lee, Pat Mee, and Laurie Greene; her former students who are now colleagues; as well as high school students, Addison and Declan Helmer, who helped with her nomination, and Joey Piperni, Hilton High School Student Council president.
The Teacher of the Year finalists for this year’s award were Michael Brooke-Gay, Hilton High School chemistry teacher; Alexandra Edwards, Merton Williams Middle School math AIS teacher; Jennifer Roberts, Northwood Elementary School fourth grade teacher; and Emily Tracey, QUEST Elementary School, grades 3-4 teacher.
Nominees must have more than five years of exceptional service to the district, active involvement in the Hilton community, and have made a substantial impact on the lives of their students and colleagues.
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