Nineteen Laramie County School District 1 staff members were recognized at the LCSD1 Board of Trustees meeting on Monday, May 1 for being nominated for the Educational Support Person of the Year (ESPY) award.

These individuals were nominated by their fellow staff, their students or other community members for displaying a level of professionalism and dedication worthy of this award. This year, the ESPY selection committee chose to award both a staff member that directly works with students regularly and a staff member that supports the district in other ways.

Annie Robarge, a behavior intervention specialist (BIS) at McCormick Junior High, was chosen as the direct staff member to win the ESPY award. Robarge has been a BIS with LCSD1 since 2017 and was an early childhood special education teacher at the STRIDE Learning Center before that. According to her nomination form, Robarge “is completely devoted to her students. She is constantly having conversations with each and every one to build trusting relationships and find out what each individual student needs to be successful.”

The second award was given to LCSD1 Executive Assistant Dawn Guffey. Guffey has been working with LCSD1 for nearly 21 years and her son graduated from LCSD1. “One of the most important attributes of Ms. Guffey is that she cares about people,” Guffey’s nomination form states. “She is organized, available to support staff who need direction, and she problem-solves situations to make the district run more efficiently.”

Guffey and Robarge were chosen out of five finalists, which also included Executive Assistant Darlene Davis, Teresa Sanchez-Aguilar, who is an Individualized Education Program (IEP) support paraprofessional at East High; and McCormick Junior High nurse Brenda Wrede.

Also nominated were Brittany Alvarado, Yvette Crile, Caitlin Dixon, Corinne Ellis, Stacy Gillotti, Jill Guthrie, Jessica Hogan, Judith Hurley, Sue Padilla, Madori Presley, Tracy Reinke-Meena, Trevor Nowotny, Kim Stacey and Tammy Stevens.

LCSD1 thanks all of these nominees for their great work.