This week’s Hometown Hero, presented by Hendrick Southpoint, is Ephesus Elementary School second grade teacher Courtney Sears.

Sears recently won the 2021 Reckford Teaching Prize from the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Public School Foundation — a $2,000 award given each year to an outstanding teacher who exhibits the joy of teaching.

“Courtney is just phenomenal,” said Stacy Boyer, the assistant principal at Ephesus Elementary. “I know that I’ve learned a lot from her. This is only my second year at Ephesus.”

In addition to her work in her own classroom, Sears also helps other teachers as well, serving on Ephesus Elementary’s Black History Month committee helping develop lessons for all teachers.

“Whenever she thinks about any assignment or anything she’s going to give a student,” said Boyer,
“she is so critical in how she thinks about how is this child, based on their experiences, going to access this information? How can I make it relevant for them? How can we use a text to then connect the students’ lives?”

Boyer said it didn’t matter how many times Sears got knocked down due to challenging situations, she always came back the next day ready to go.

Ephesus Elementary principal Eric Taylor agreed with Boyer’s sentiments on Sears.

“Mrs. Sears cares about every student in her classroom,” he said. “She’s someone who starts early and always finishes late.”

Taylor added that Sears embraces the challenges of remote learning, something that made her Reckford award all that more deserving.

“It’s really about her passion. We get into this profession because we love students. Some people have lost that over the years because it is a lot, but we’re talking about a veteran teacher who models that same level of enthusiasm.

“She even embraces the challenges of remote learning. Something that none of us have done before. When you sit in on her meet with students, you see that passion and love.”

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Listen to this week’s Hometown Hero segment: