Our own Jillian Bell, 5th-grade teacher, won the 2017 FCPS Outstanding Elementary Teacher of the Year.  We are so proud of her accomplishment! Over her 16-year teaching career, Ms. Bell says that the most important thing she can do as a teacher is getting to know her students. 

Ms. Bell says, "“I learned early on that I needed to reach before I could teach. Every year, a new set of students with a multitude of needs requires you to get to know them, how they learn best, and provide them with appropriate learning opportunities. This is no easy task and it takes a lot of time and effort that extends well beyond the school day and the walls of the school building.”

Ms. Bell serves as a Girls on the Run coach, co-sponsor of the Brookfield SCA, and a volunteer during the summer to support the school's bookmobile reading program to build literacy through the summer months. 

At her first teaching job in an inner city school in Albany, New York, Jillian struggled to engage students—until she started using her vacation to visit them and their families at home. “I learned that pretty decorations and lesson plans didn’t matter,” she says. “I needed to reach before I could teach.” Whether she’s sharing a student’s “glows and grows” with a parent, acting as designated principal, or leading a “Girls on the Run” event, interacting with the wider community remains a priority for Jillian. Fellow staffers praise her as a leader who’s changed school culture, a “natural” in the classroom with a gift for mentoring. One former student, now on scholarship at a top college, even credited Jillian for her success. “Without Ms. Bell’s belief in me and fostering my sense of confidence,” she wrote, “I do not believe any of this would have been possible.”

• View Ms. Bell's page on the FCPS website

Congratulations also to the other Brookfield ES staff members recognized at the event.

Outstanding Elementary New Teacher School and Pyramid-level Recipient

• Maya Omran (5th-grade Teacher)

Outstanding School-based Hourly  Employee School-level Recipient

• Leigh Trinh (Substitute Teacher)

Outstanding School-based Support Employee School and Pyramid-level Recipient

• Janice Riddell (Library Assistant)

Outstanding School-based Leader School-level Recipient

• Kevin Feighery (School Based Technology Specialist)

Outstanding Principal School-level Recipient

•  Mary Miller

Thank you to Monica Evans for all of her hard work with the nomination process by serving as this year's awards liaison.