RAVE Winners 2017

Catalina Pajar, Executive Assistant - Leadership, Equity, Achievement, & Design (LEAD) - Distinguished Service Award Winner for October 2017

"She helps orchestrate our homeless program at SAC, and she helped a lot at our youth summit. A lot of the behind the scenes work is done by Catalina - getting food for our meetings, ordering materials, and much more. When she left on a vacation, I was stuck and felt a thousand times more stressed. Catalina keeps the wheels moving, and keeps everyone productive." - Nominated 06/2017

McKenna Taylor, English Teacher - Ida B. Wells High School - Special Service Award Winner for October 2017

"McKenna is an amazing breath of fresh air who shares a classroom adjacent to my own. As I am new at this school, McKenna has been so open and warm to me as a colleague. I see the students flock to her room every day for her classes and at lunch just to talk to her and laugh with her. The students here have often been beaten down by former schools and teachers. Mckenna offers no judgment, only encouragement. She really rocks her room puts so much time into making her classes appropriate, rigorous, and meaningful." - Nominated 12/2016

Amy Matarazzo, Physical Education Specialist - Alvarado Elementary School - Special Service Award Winner for May 2017

"Amy's thirst for increasing the learning of students with disabilities is one of the many factors that have led Amy to become such a distinguished teacher. She routinely shares her own tried and tested best practices for teaching students with disabilities during PDs and through google drive." - Nominated 01/2017

Nadir del Toro Solis, Clerk - Junipero Serra Annex Early Education School - Special Service Award Winner for May 2017

"Nadir is a shining star! She is an example of the very best in administrative support. She meets every family with a goal of equitably serving their needs. When she served as our noon monitor for several years in the TK she supported every child to be self-regulating and socially successful. She has provided excellent service to the school in her work on daily operations, customer service, budget, contracts and whatever work is asked of her." - Nominated 11/2016

Caroline Stanfield, Audiologist - Thurgood Marshall High School - Distinguished Service Award Winner for April 2017

"Caroline has been a bright light in our district for many years and is consistently going out of her way to meet the needs of students with hearing loss. She meets with each referred student, finds out about how they are doing, assists in determining the FM equipment needed to assist them in the classroom, and is down to work with each child to even determine their favorite color. She never says "no" and is always willing to go above and beyond while working with both regular education and special education children. She is responsive to each individual student's needs and is always willing to work with staff to assist them in understanding the specialized needs of students with hearing loss." - Nominated 01/2017

Michael Powell, Plumber - Facilities - Special Service Award Winner for April 2017

"Mike has gone above and beyond working on the district's largest and longest-running blind leak at the McAteer campus. After spending hours searching the school for visible leaks, spending many weekends overseeing professional leak detection efforts, and coordinating with bond modernization work, Mike agreed in fall to move his efforts to non-school hours. Often working before 6 AM and once from 8PM to midnight to accommodate the school’s daily operations and SOTA’s busy event schedules, Mike’s has decreased the size of the leak by 50%, created a clear path to a final fix, and has confirmed his Dad’s hypothesis, a former SFUSD plumber, that the campus had a large leak over 20 years ago." - Nominated 02/2017

Kenneth Gonzalez, English Department Head + Teacher - Balboa High School - Distinguished Service Award Winner for March 2017

"I appreciate Ken's diplomacy, kindness, consideration, and vision. He understands that leadership requires bigger vision and he understands and seeks to understand the needs of teachers in order to best support his colleagues as department head and as a veteran teacher at our school site." - Nominated 11/2016

Dana Warnery, School Secretary - Clarendon Alternative Elementary School - Special Service Award Winner for March 2017

"Dana Warnery is quite simply the best school secretary I have ever seen. She ensures that every class is covered every day by calling substitutes late into the evening. Because of her work, teachers have all of the supplies they need in a timely manner. Parents are supported by all of the information they need about their child at school. She nurtures students through numerous bumps that come with being in elementary school. And she is a chief of morale in the school by welcoming new staff, setting up award lunches for students, and marking important events in the life of every staff person." - Nominated 11/2016

Valerie Ziegler, Green Academy Coordinator - Abraham Lincoln High School - Distinguished Service Award Winner for February 2017

"As coordinator of Lincoln High School's Green Academy, Ms. Ziegler is responsible for facilitating all of the school activities related to environmental issues - including our school garden program, recycling and compost training, healthy food initiatives, energy audits and proposals to cut back on energy usage in addition to many other events and activities outside of Lincoln. This includes bringing her students outside of the classroom and into the world of work - field trips in the many industries the environmental pathway could lead. She is someone that we all RAVE about!" - Nominated 05/2016

Linda Mastrangelo, Paraprofessional - Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School - Distinguished Service Award Winner for February 2017

"When students experience difficult emotions, Ms. Linda would spend time to help students process them. I have had students who experienced trauma such as losing family members and other personal issues. Ms. Linda would spend break time talking to the grieving or troubled students. She connected with the students by sharing about her life experiences and getting students to express themselves in healthy manners. She helped empower students with improved problem-solving skills and to better understand and/or accept circumstances. On several occasions, Ms. Linda even gave students encouraging notes, books, and other tools to support children going through trauma. Students and teachers greatly appreciate her. Overall, Ms. Linda is making a huge difference in our lives." - Nominated 10/2016

Lauren Miller, Teacher - San Francisco Public Montessori School - Special Service RAVE Award Winner for January 2017

"Ms. Lauren has a relationship with each and every child in her class. She knows how to bring out the best in her students. Something about her makes students want to do their very best work. She encourages students in a way I haven't seen before. She helps them to see what they are capable of and she does it with such ease. She takes time to engage with each child not only with classwork but on every level. She puts thought and effort into her class activities so that they cater to the particular class and not just the grade she is teaching." - Nominated 09/2016

Amy Abero, Counselor - John O'Connell High School - Special Service RAVE Award Winner for January 2017

"I am nominating Amy Abero for going above and beyond. She is a consistent, caring adult in the lives of the O'Connell students. She has an open-door policy and greets all students with a smile. She is an amazing asset to teachers and support staff as well. I believe her organization, dedication, and positive attitude will impact SFUSD for years to come." - Nominated 05/2016