Manson School Board Selects 2022 Blue & White Excellence Award Winners

Congratulations to Diana Willoughby, Carman Fretwell, and Gregorio Benavides

information and photos released

The Manson School District Board of Directors announced the 2022 Blue and White Excellence Awards winners at its March board meeting.  Nominations were submitted by staff, students and community members. Award recipients were:  elementary teachers Carman Fretwell and Gregorio Benavides, and elementary special education paraeducator Diana Willoughby.

DIANA WILLOUGHBY

A co-worker shared, “Diana has worked tirelessly through the pandemic with a specific student in order to increase that student’s time at school from 1 hour to a full day in his classroom! She shows tremendous patience, creativity and flexibility in all her job and has impacted many students beyond this specific one.”

CARMAN FRETWELL

A fellow teacher shared, “Carman is always working so hard to build strong relationships with our students. She has created such strong bonds with my students with such a small amount of time available to meet with them each day. When my students are pulled out to work with her, they always so excited to learn from her. I often go to Carmen for advice because her positive attitude it contagious.”

GREGORIO BENAVIDES

A staff member shared, “I have worked with Gregorio for over 17 years and prior to here, I briefly worked with him at Chelan Elementary School. Gregorio has always been a good solid teacher. He is always positive with students and staff. He has done a targeted academic Afters for his students needing extra support for many years. He works hard to help his students succeed. During the thickest part of the Pandemic and shut down, Gregorio continued to be the professional teacher and do everything that was needed to make sure his students learned. Whether it was a remote, hybrid, asynchronous or synchronous teaching model, Gregorio continued to be the true professional teacher and did whatever was needed to help his students learn in an environment that was atypical to learning.