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2025 New Hampshire Teacher of the Year Candace Angeles urges stronger school‑community partnerships, cites cell‑phone policy success
Summary
Candace Angeles, named 2025 New Hampshire Teacher of the Year, addressed the State Board describing classroom practice at Bedford High School, her platform to spotlight innovation in New Hampshire schools, and support for a proposed state policy restricting cell phones in instructional time.
Candace Angeles, the 2025 New Hampshire Teacher of the Year and a Spanish teacher at Bedford High School, told the State Board of Education she will use the honor to highlight innovation in the state's public schools and to promote stronger local‑state partnerships that support classroom practice.
Angeles described how Bedford’s school‑wide cell‑phone policy — where students place phones in holders during instructional time — improved focus and classroom engagement. “Last year I started scrambling because I was actually two weeks ahead of my curriculum… My kids were working so much harder,” she said, urging state support for policies she said guided healthier student‑technology relationships. (First reference: Candace Angeles, presentation to State Board.)
Nut graf: Angeles framed her Teacher of the Year platform around three priorities: recognizing and scaling classroom innovation, strengthening ties between state officials and schools through reciprocal visits and conversations, and protecting hands‑on, well‑resourced programs that build civic and technical skills.
She described a state‑wide initiative she launched with the Department of Education, the Trailblazers in Education Spotlight, which highlights teacher innovations from school nurses’ hydroponic garden projects to a submarine‑racing team at a public high school. Angeles also recounted student stories that informed her advocacy, including a former student who at 17 ran a spirited campaign for school‑board office and helped spur greater civic engagement among peers.
Angeles urged support for school visits by state leaders to observe day‑to‑day operations and cited local partnerships — naming Superintendent Michael Hornier and Assistant Superintendent Tom of Liberty (as described in her remarks) — as examples of district‑level engagement that reinforced teacher‑led innovation. She expressed concern about budget cuts and educator burnout and said she plans to promote a statewide movement to connect community resources — businesses, non‑profits and agencies — with classroom learning.
Ending: Angeles closed by describing teaching as a relationship‑driven profession and by asking the Board to help protect and celebrate the educators and programs that build students’ civic and academic capacities. The Board received her remarks and asked a few clarifying questions about the Seal of Biliteracy and her classroom uses of AI in instruction. (Presenter: Candace Angeles, Bedford High School.)
