An East Sac County (ESC) High School teacher associate has been named the 2020 Teacher Associate of the Year by the Professional Educators of Iowa. Paula Carlyle-Pudenz has been a paraeducator with ESC since 2014 and works as an associate in the high school library. Principal, Kevin Litterer, says Carlyle-Pudenz plays an important role for students taking college-level courses from Iowa Central Community College.
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ESC School Counselor, Amanda Miller, says Carlyle-Pudenz is involved with students in every grade at the high school, regardless of if they are taking college classes. According to her, Carlyle-Pudenz is always willing to put in extra time and effort to set her students up for success.
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Miller adds Carlyle-Pudenz even volunteers to ride the school bus to and from Auburn to lend a hand on one of the district’s busiest routes.
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Carlyle-Pudenz says when she first started at ESC, she initially thought of it as just a job. She learned right away that being a paraeducator was much more than that.
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Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, ESC was not able to celebrate Carlyle-Pudenz’s award the way they would have liked. Fortunately, she was able to say goodbye to many of her seniors last week during their graduation parade. While she is really missing her students, especially now that the end of the school year is here, she is already looking forward to getting back to the classroom in August.