Cate Elam knows Ms. Pizzo is one of those teachers who will go above and beyond. She inspires Cate and pushes her to her full potential.

“I know I can always go to Ms. Pizzo for anything. She’s so funny and so sweet,” Elam said. “She’s always telling me how I can go to her for job recommendations which is really helpful.”

During American Education week, Liberty’s teacher of the year award was announced on Nov. 14.

Ms. Pizzo is a FACS teacher, the sponsor of FCCLA and has been teaching for 12 years.

The announcement was made by Ms. Reininger in front of the Liberty teaching staff.

“I was so shocked and I didn’t believe that I deserved it,” she said.

It took a lot of commitment to get where Ms. Pizzo is today.

She didn’t go to college wanting to be a teacher. Thanks to her roommates, she was able to find the love and passion for teaching.

Her roommates wanted to be elementary school teachers, but Ms. Pizzo didn’t feel that elementary school would be challenging enough for her.

“I thought that high school would be much more challenging to teach than elementary kids, and I didn’t want to take something on that was easy,” Pizzo said.

Pizzo loves being able to give information to people and then sit back and watch them use it. She wants to be able to see what students are able to do with the information she gives them.

Many of Pizzo’s students believe that she was well deserving of the teacher of the year award.

“I definitely think that she deserves teacher of the year because she’s just cares for everyone. She’s always there for you no matter what,” junior Ben Leach said.  

Along with teaching every day, Ms. Pizzo is also the sponsor of FCCLA. She is constantly teaching and inspiring kids.

Candidates for teacher of the year are judged on the respect and admiration of students, parents and colleagues. Selection is also based on their ability to inspire and educate students of all backgrounds and abilities.

On Dec. 15th, the district teacher of the year will be announced at the board of education meeting. This is a lot harder to get because teachers will be judged from all over the district, including elementary and middle school teachers.

Ms. Pizzo is an inspiration to many people for so many reasons, and there’s no question as to why she is the teacher of the year.