PJMS teacher receives national honor

Frontiersman staff

PALMER -- Palmer Junior Middle School teacher Patricia Truman has done it again.

The Alaska Teacher of the Year has garnered yet another honor, this one worth $10,000. Truman was named a recipient of the Horace Mann-NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence, and is one of only five teachers in the United States to earn the distinction this year.

Truman will be honored in December at the National Education Association's annual "Salute to Excellence in Education Gala" in Washington, D.C. She is also a national finalist for the NEA Foundation Award for Teaching Excellence, which comes with an additional $25,000 cash ward.

"[Truman] has demonstrated not only instructional excellence, but also outstanding advocacy for the teaching profession and leadership in the community," the NEA Foundation wrote in a prepared statement. "[The district] and the community should take enormous pride in Ms. Truman's selection."

Mat-Su Borough School District Superintendent Patricia Chesbro described the district as being proud to have Truman as an educational leader.

"She is truly committed to helping her students become lifelong learners, and to making our community partners in the education of our children," Chesbro said in the press release.