Five finalists each for two of the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System’s highest honors were announced at a reception on Thursday, October 30, 2025 in the Davis-Edwards-Harris Educational Complex Auditorium. The announcement of finalists for the District’s 2027 Teacher of the Year and Instructional Support Person of the Year came after each of the school level representatives submitted from the 58 district schools and programs were recognized and crossed stage to shake hands with Board members and the Superintendent. WJCL News Anchor Shannon Royster was the event emcee.

All ten finalists are pictured in the photo above.  The five finalists for our 2027 District Teacher of the Year are:

Dr. Kimberly Thomas – The Learning Academy

Kimberly Castillo – West Chatham Middle School

Denneille Luke – New Hampstead High School

Sam Sacks – New Hampstead K-8 School

Remington Sauers – May Howard Elementary School

The five finalists for our 2027 District Instructional Support Person of the Year are:

Lauren Evans – Savannah-Chatham E-Learning Academy

Shanell Bryan – Garden City Elementary School

Brian Cruz – Groves High School

Rebecca Newport – Hesse K-8 School

Melissa Groover – West Chatham Middle School

The Teacher of the Year finalists were determined by scores from Community Readers of each teacher’s essay application submitted after they were chosen by their peers to be the Teacher of the Year for their school. The Teacher of the Year application is based on the State Teacher of the Year application. Each year the Savannah-Chatham County Public School System recognizes support staff such as nurses, paraprofessionals, custodians, cafeteria workers, counselor clerks, secretaries and school resource officers.  Each school chooses a site-based representative who then competes to be named the District’s Instructional Support Person of the Year. The Instructional Support Person of the Year finalists were based on scoring of their applications by readers from within the district.

The 2027 District Teacher of the Year (TOTY) and Instructional Support Person of the Year (ISPY) will be named at the Annual Excellence in Education Gala in the Spring Semester. They will then serve as leaders for the Superintendent’s Professional Senate in the 2026-27 School Year, providing updates during monthly School Board Meetings and acting as an advocate for the school system.

The five finalists for Teacher of the Year will now move on to the next steps in competition to name the District Teacher of the Year for the 2026-27 School Year.  That process includes classroom observations and panel interviews over the next month.

See more photos from the reception here.