Submitted by Michael Drahos
(Town of Eaton, NY – June 2013) Morrisville-Eaton is blessed with many dedicated staff members committed to fostering a strong and positive learning community. While it is hard to single out any individual, each year the Board of Education recognizes an employee of the year from both our instructional and non-instructional staff.
On behalf of our Board of Education, I would like to congratulate each of the nominees for the 2013 Employee of the Year. This year’s instructional nominees were: Michele Cesta, Beth Geatrakas, Laurie Haswell, Jacqueline Storer and Molly Wheaton. The non-instructional nominees were: Linda Bataille, Richard Bowie, Mike Corpin, Sandy Eaton, Janice Goff and Marva Maciag. Marva and Beth were ultimately chosen as the 2013 recipients.
Marva began working for M-ECS in 1988, which makes this her 25th year, or silver anniversary. Marva actually received multiple nominations for the recognition this year, and each of the nominations was endorsed by multiple people including parents, teachers, colleagues and district residents.
These nominations include citations of modeling good citizenship, treating all children and colleagues with respect and providing a nurturing and compassionate environment. During the past quarter-century, she has worn many hats from serving in the cafeteria, playground, hallways and most recently in the kindergarten playground.
She has been described by previous supervisors as “flexible, possessing a sense of humor, dependable and being a team player.”
I would add my own observation that, when I see Marva working with kids, she is genuinely invested in their wellbeing.
Beth also received multiple nominations from her colleagues this year.
She joined our learning community in January 1996 as the school media specialist. The characteristics used to describe Beth include unfailingly positive, excellent resource, dedicated to learning, tireless and genuine. Her professionalism, commitment to high standards, ability to work with others and knowledge of her field of expertise led previous administrators to refer to her as an integral part of the learning community.
Rather than coasting into her final years, Beth has been committed to providing the instruction that will be critical to library and research skills for all of our students. She was committed to making sure our students were college- and career ready before that was even a state education catch phrase.
Michael Drahos is superintendent of schools for the Morrisville-Eaton Central School District.