Mrs. Randi Slye is named ‘Teacher of the Year’ for the 2017-18 school year.

Mrs. Slye has been a member of the Cass family since she began teaching fifteen years ago. She teaches “exceptional student education self-contained” or ESE for short. ESE classes are educational programs for students with disabilities, meant to support and provide “accessible instructional materials, assistive technology, curriculum access and alignment, dropout prevention, family engagement, least restrictive environment, positive behavior supports, and transition,” according to the Georgia Department of Education website. Mrs. Slye also organizes the county-wide Special Olympics, a day of track and field competitions for students with special needs. She can often be found at the end of the hallway, selling candy bars with her students, to help get them around the other high schoolers while raising funds for Special Olympics.

This is the first major award Mrs. Slye has won as a teacher, aside from teacher of the month which is chosen by the students once every month throughout the school year. Teacher of the Year is chosen by the faculty and staff at Cass, and there are several requirements that must be met to qualify. Teacher of the Year must be a teacher who “inspires students of all backgrounds and abilities to learn, plays an active and useful role in the community as well as in the school, and is exceptionally dedicated, knowledgeable, and skilled,” states gadoe.org

When asked, Mrs. Slye says, “I felt very honored to receive the award. I was very excited, and actually quite humbled; it’s a very humbling experience.” Mrs. Slye’s students all seem to adore her. “It’s not hard to see why she won, she would do anything for those kids,” says Macy Wright, sister to one of Mrs. Slye’s students, Jake Wright.

Congratulations to Mrs. Slye. All of Cass High School appreciates the many things she does to make this school a better place.