Clayton Valley Charter High School, 2017 Winner
Sarah Lovick has been a teacher for 15 years. At Clayton Valley High in Concord, Sarah teaches the AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program, a curriculum designed to motivate and equip students to do better in all their classes as they prepare to go to college. She also coordinates the Link Crew program, training members of the junior and senior class to be leaders and mentors for incoming freshmen. But there is more. She runs the After-School Tutoring program, the Academic Mentor program, and is the New Teacher Support coordinator. In addition, Sarah has a second job at the John Muir Behavioral Health Facility, a lock-down facility for at-risk children and adolescents. There, Sarah teaches all subjects to ages 5-11 (Child Unit) and English to ages 12-18 (Adolescent Unit). When Sarah started at the facility, she was told the longest anyone had lasted in that job was three months. That was 11 years ago. Her school web page has the following quote: “I call my students ‘my kids’ because in our year together they aren’t just kids on my class list, they become a part of my heart.”