Spotsylvania County Educator Deborah Goforth
Named Virginia’s 2006 Teacher of the Year

Deborah S. Goforth, a library media specialist at Courtland Elementary School in Spotsylvania County, was named the Virginia 2006 Teacher of the Year at a celebratory banquet Friday evening in Richmond. Mrs. Goforth was selected from the eight Virginia 2006 Regional Teachers of the Year announced in September. She will be the commonwealth’s nominee in the National Teacher of the Year will be the commonwealth’s nominee in the National Teacher of the Year program, which is sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers, Scholastic Inc, and ING Foundation.

“Debi shares her love of learning not only with the students who enter her library but with the teachers whom she supports,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Jo Lynne DeMary. “She is a worthy representative of Virginia’s public school teachers whose work and creativity are evidenced through continued increases in student achievement.”

Mrs. Goforth was selected after being interviewed earlier in the day by a committee that included representatives of professional and educational associations, the business community, and 2005 Virginia Teacher of the Year Joseph Hills, a world studies teacher at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Fairfax County.

Two previous Virginia teachers have gone on to become National Teacher of the Year: B. Philip Bigler, the 1998 Virginia Teacher of the Year, and Mary Bicouvaris, the 1989 Virginia Teacher of the Year.

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