Cromwell Board honors four teachers of the year and student leaders

The Cromwell School District Board of Education recognized four teachers and several student leaders at a regular board meeting, praising their classroom work and community engagement.

Superintendent Dr. Macri introduced the district’s teachers of the year and described the selections as aligned with the district motto “placing students first.” He said the honorees were chosen from nominees at each school and noted the difficulty of the selection process given the number of strong candidates.

Jane Sarnowski was named the district teacher of the year. Administrators said Sarnowski — a language-arts teacher with 20 years in the district — greets students by name, runs extracurricular activities including a ski club and teacher leadership roles, and was previously recognized as the middle school teacher of the year. The superintendent and other speakers said her students asked to have lunch with her as a reward after meeting a classroom goal, which administrators cited as an example of her rapport with students.

Other school-level winners included a second-grade teacher at ECS (introduced at the meeting as Miss Cerbezi), Woodside Intermediate’s teacher of the year Emily Presley, and Alicia Malillo, a school counselor at Cromwell High School who speakers said is the first counselor in CHS history to receive a teacher-of-the-year honor. Administrators credited Presley for her multiage classroom work and creative instruction, and described Malillo as a frequent student advocate and a central figure in college-admissions guidance.

The board also presented CABE student leadership awards to Peyton Falsigno and Brian Pearson at the middle-school level, and recognized high-school leaders Summer Tetro and Sharron Manek (both described at the meeting as having extensive leadership and community-service records). The board noted Summer Tetro will attend Worcester Polytechnic Institute to study civil engineering and that Sharron Manek plans to attend Duke University to study biotechnology.

In the same meeting the board and district leaders highlighted teacher-leadership academy projects — including career-pathway guest speakers, Smarter Balanced/SAT preparation materials, a CMS writing club publication in progress, and a comprehensive substitute/teacher resource manual — and thanked district staff who lead those efforts.

Board members and administrators repeatedly emphasized the personal and long-term impact of teachers and student leaders on the community, describing the recognitions as a way to highlight that work.

Less-critical housekeeping and acknowledgements at the end of the recognitions included thanks to prior district teacher-of-the-year Christina Mataskevich for her attendance and a round of applause for the honorees.