The Register-Guard

The Register-Guard

Camas Ridge educator is Teacher of the Year | Donna Dubois is praised for her enthusiasm and dedication to her job

By Anne Williams

The Register-Guard

Posted to Web: Tuesday, Oct 27, 2009 11:45PM
Appeared in print: Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009, page A6

As soon as he heard the words “Light it Forward,” Jake Quinn’s face lit up.

Like many of his classmates, the Camas Ridge Community School fourth-grader suddenly realized why TV news crews and other unfamiliar grown-ups were gathered in the school gym.

It was all for Donna Dubois — “Ms. D” to her students — who learned at Tuesday’s hastily called assembly that she had been named Oregon Teacher of the Year for 2009-10.

“I was surprised, and I wasn’t,” said Jake, who participated in Dubois’ Light it Forward project — in which students distributed free energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs and encouraged recipients to buy another bulb and give it away — as a third-grader last year. “She’s a very great teacher and I like her. She’s creative and fun. She just makes things very magnetic.”

The award announcement also was intended to be a surprise for Dubois, who began teaching at Harris Elementary last year as it planned its now-complete merger with Eastside Alternative Elementary and was renamed Camas Ridge, in south Eugene. She fell for a ruse about the assembly being for Principal Wally Bryant, but the jig was up when she walked into the gym and saw her dad with a bouquet of roses.

After an introduction by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Susan Castillo — whose passing reference to Light it Forward was the first clue to the honoree’s identity — Dubois briefly thanked her colleagues, and offered her students a piece of advice she’s followed herself.

“The No. 1 thing you should do is find out what your passion in life is,” said Dubois, 42, who has known she wanted to teach since volunteering at a preschool in her teens.

Dubois, who has spent the past nine of her 12 years of teaching in the Eugene district, was one of 44 nominees from around the state, 15 of whom went through the extensive process behind being named a finalist. It involved completing paperwork and essay questions, soliciting letters of recommendation and interviewing before a selection panel.

She is the first local teacher to win the award since Goshen School’s Joanne Johnson in 1994. Other past recipients were Springfield Middle School science teacher Stuart Perlmeter in 1990 and Churchill High School home economics teacher Joyce Osternig in 1975.

A Willamette High School graduate and single mother of three, Dubois first taught school in Utah and returned to Eugene in 2000. She taught technology, and she coordinated federal Title I programs at McCornack and Edison elementary schools, then transferred in 2002 to Charlemagne at Fox Hol-low French Immersion, where she taught second and fourth grades.

In 2007, she took a position at the central office as a teacher on special assignment, helping the district implement a new language arts curriculum that met with some resistance. She thought the move would help guide her next career decision.

“I was debating whether or not I wanted to be an administrator,” she said. “After one year I decided my heart was in the classroom.”

During her central-office stint she got to know then-student achievement coordinator Yvonne Curtis, who nominated her — and three other teachers on special assignment — for the statewide honor. Curtis said Dubois’ gifts as a classroom teacher translated to her work with other teachers.

“She is one of those very energizing people to work with,” said Curtis, now superintendent for the Forest Grove School District. “She can always find the good in every person she is working with, whether she’s teaching a teacher or a student.”

In his letter of recommendation, Bryant said Dubois was “instrumental” in making the controversial merger of two very different schools a success. She served as a teacher representative on an advisory committee that evaluated and offered feedback on all proposals.

“Donna’s clear thinking and global perspective were invaluable in helping us work through some very difficult discussions,” wrote Bryant, who also extolled Dubois’ “infectious” energy and enthusiasm.

Dubois said she considered herself lucky to get in on the ground floor of such a promising venture. She said she’s especially excited about Camas Ridge’s emphasis on project-based learning — the Light it Forward effort being a good example.

“It’s really great to take kids who don’t feel like they have a say, who don’t feel like they’re important, and make them feel like they can make a difference,” she said.

Dubois’ beaming students posed for photos with her after the assembly and practically skipped back to class.

“I used to not like school, but Ms. D. makes school fun,” Hannah Brandow said.

“She does art a lot, and I love art,” Lilly Knouse added. “She’s just really great.”

Dubois will receive $5,000 from the Intel Corp., which sponsors the program, and an all-expenses-paid trip to the national Teacher of the Year forum in Washington, D.C.

The school will receive educational software and hardware from the Smart Kids Foundation. Dubois said she’s thinking of using some of the money to set up a project-based learning fund at Camas Ridge.