Villa Rica High School Director of Bands Kevin Brown is the 2024-2025 Carroll County Schools Teacher of the Year.
Brown has 21 years of experience as an educator including the last four at VRHS. He is a member of the Cobb Wind Symphony and serves as the Georgia Music Educators Association District & Band Chair.
Brown has committed himself to challenging students at VRHS to raise their expectations and establish a culture of excellence. His leadership has led the GMEA to invite multiple groups from VRHS to perform at its annual conference in the last two years. The VRHS Symphonic Band has been invited to perform at the 2024 GMEA conference in Athens.
Neil Ruby who serves as Fine Arts Coordinator for the school system said Brown goes beyond teaching notes and rhythms.
“Mr. Brown is teaching students respect, responsibility, dedication, commitment, and how powerful music can be in our daily lives,” Ruby said. “The future of his students truly is his mission and it is easily heard and seen in his words and actions.”
Roopville Elementary School teacher Stacey Morris is the system runner-up. A 28-year veteran teacher, Morris serves as first grade team leader at RES.
“Each year I am blown away with our teacher of the year winners,” Superintendent Scott Cowart said. “Mr. Brown and Mrs. Morris are the best of the best 25 teachers in Carroll County, and they represent more than 1,000 classroom teachers across our five clusters of schools. We are all proud of them, and wish Mr. Brown the very best as he goes on to the statewide competition.”
Brown and Morris were announced as winners Thursday, October 19 at a celebration for all 25 school-level Carroll County School System teachers of the year. Community representatives who served as judges, sponsors of the Teacher of the Year event, school and system representatives and board of education members attended the event as a part of the evening’s board meeting.
The Teacher of the Year competition begins each year when each school’s faculty selects a school winner. All school winners complete a written application which is reviewed by a panel of community judges. The panel of judges selects finalists and visits their classrooms for in-person evaluations.
Finalists who were announced in September were Brown, Morris and Amy Baxter from Central Elementary School. This year’s community judges were Susan Hale from Synovus, Jeannette Polk from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and Jimmy Garrett from Midway Church.
"Being able to celebrate this incredible group of teachers tonight was exciting,” Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Mr. Jared Griffis said. “We are blessed in Carroll County to have dedicated and talented teachers such as tonight's honorees who are committed to positively changing lives. Their commitment to provide the very best education for all students is what makes the difference and what truly makes our district premier.”
The Teacher of the Year celebration was supported by premier sponsors: American Commerce Bank, Bank OZK, Carroll County Association of Educators, Georgia Power Northwest Credit Union, Holloway Floor and Ceiling, J&R Construction, J. Smith Lanier, Smith, Wallace, & Scott LLC, Staples, Security Solutions, Southern States Bank, Tommy's Car Wash, Truist Bank, the Whorton Agency, and 3:16 Healthcare.
