Biology and Anatomy teacher, Francesca Mast, usually starts her classes off with friendly conversations between her students. These conversations can range from chatting about hair dye to how her father and one of her students fathers share many of the same interests, or the varying hair styles she had growing up.

Mast’s passion and exuberance make class interesting and her forgiving nature helps to alleviate some of the stress high school can impose. All of her positive contributions to Annandale’s learning experience have been recognized as she is AHS’s nomination for the FCPS Outstanding Teacher Award.

“I have Ms Mast for R1 meaning that I’m still half asleep. Whenever I walk in or see Ms. Mast in class her high abundance of energy and excitement preps me for the rest of the day,” senior Nora Hasrat said. “Qualities I look for in a teacher are passion, understanding, affability, and motivational. I see all of those characteristics in Ms. Mast! I couldn’t be more happy for her [nomination].”

The county guidelines for the award states that the teacher should “instill in students a desire to learn and achieve, understand the individual needs of students, encourage their talents and foster their self-esteem, demonstrate a thorough knowledge of subject matter and the ability to share it effectively with students, foster cooperative relationships and engage with their colleagues and the community, and demonstrate outstanding leadership.”

After almost nine years of teaching at Annandale Mast has been nominated by the community and her peers as a teacher who is exceptional and deserves recognition.

“Twenty-six teachers were nominated [for AHS Outstanding Teacher},” Annandale award liaison and Dean of Students Monica Bentley said. “The AHS staff had to vote for only one of the nominees for AHS Outstanding Teacher.  Ms. Mast won the most votes and is the AHS Outstanding Teacher.”

Four other teachers were also selected to represent Annandale as an outstanding teacher.

“Katie Brunberg, Theater teacher, was the only new teacher (1-3 years of teaching) so she automatically won the AHS Outstanding New Teacher award,” Bentley said. “There were 8 nominations for AHS Outstanding School Based Leader and Donna Higgins, Assistant Principal, won for that category. There were 9 nominations for AHS Outstanding Support  Employee and Carlos Villatoro in Students Services won for that category.”

The only regulations the county places around the outstanding teacher award are that the teacher must have taught in FCPS for at least three years and be aware and in agreement with their nomination.

“I was shocked [when I found out I was AHS’s nomination],” Mast said. “When nominations came up I voted for someone else. There are so many deserving teachers that inspire me; [so many teachers] that I go see and try to model.”

Following Mast and Brunberg’s nomination they will be put into a pool with other school’s outstanding teachers and the county will select the winner through an elongated process.

The next step in the process is for the local pyramid to decide which single teacher will move on. The teacher chosen from the pyramid will move on to the regional selection. During this time the region will conduct a similar decision making process and select one teacher to move on. The five regional finalists will then interview with the FCPS leadership team, who will make the final decision on which teacher the county names it’s most outstanding teacher.

“Ms. Higgins and Mr. Villatoro will go on to the pyramid level where a Pyramid Outstanding School-Based Leader and Outstanding Support Employee will be selected and put forward to the Region level. From there, finalists will be chosen for the overall Fairfax County Public Schools Outstanding School-Based Leader and Outstanding Support Employee Awards. A winner from each of the Elementary and Secondary school levels will be announced in the overall 2017 Outstanding School-Based Leader and Outstanding Support Employee category at the FCPS Honors awards gala,” Bentley said.

For the outstanding teacher award the educator that wins will be recognized at the annual FCPS awards gala and will receive a prize of $5,000. If Mast wins she will also get to host a celebration with her workplace colleagues to recognize the collaborative teamwork and contribution to her excellence.