Clark County teachers recognized in local awards show — PHOTOS

Azure Quinlan walked into The Smith Center for the Performing Arts on Saturday evening alongside Demay Perrault, the aunt who inspired her to become a teacher nearly 20 years ago.

Quinlan and more than 800 Clark County School District teachers attended the Heart of Education Awards, an inaugural event that recognizes educators for going above and beyond for their students.

“Words can’t describe it,” Quinlan, a fourth-grade teacher at Mitchell Elementary, said. “It’s amazing to be recognized for achievements in the classroom.”

Robert Proffitt, a seventh- and eighth-grade history and geography teacher at the Kenny C. Guinn STEM Academy, was being honored as an educator for the second time as he was named to the district’s hall of fame last year.

“All too often you hear when a teacher makes a mistake, and they don’t receive recognition for when they do a great job,” he said. “There are so many good teachers in this community, and it’s nice for the community to recognize us.”

Though the 35-year educator said it felt great to receive the honor, Proffitt said he hopes his legacy is left with his students.

“I hope to be able to see and read about some of my students excelling in their careers and in their lives,” Proffitt said. “It’s about my students; it’s not about me.”

The Heart of Education awards debut comes after more than a year in the making, said Myron Martin, president and CEO of The Smith Center.

He said he approached Beverly Rogers, co-founder of The Rogers Foundation, with the idea of bringing an event similar to the Washington D.C.-based John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Honors, which recognizes lifelong accomplishments and extraordinary talents of American artists.

Martin said he was inspired by his close friend and the founder of the Kennedy Center Honors, George Stevens, an American writer, author, playwright, director and producer.

“He spent some time with the superintendent in the D.C. area who told him she was having trouble recruiting new teachers and retaining her best teachers,” Martin said of Stevens. “They’re now recruiting some of the best teachers and retaining their best teachers in the district, and it gives you a sense of how compelling it was what they did in D.C.”

Martin saw an opportunity to make a difference for teachers here.

“One of the things I’ve noticed is that a lot of teachers don’t feel appreciated and I wanted to change that so I thought why don’t we have an awards show once a year and make it a big night for education and the community to make our best teachers feel admired and respected,” he said.

Rogers said it was an easy decision for her organization, a Las Vegas nonprofit organization that awards scholarships to Southern Nevada students and grants to educational institutions, to jump onboard.

“Not only do we want to be involved but we wanted to own it,” she said. “This is something that in the long run will help recruit and keep teachers in the district.”

Out of the more than 800 nominated Clark County School District educators, 21 finalists received a medal, a check for $5,000 and a $1,000 school donation that allows each finalist to choose which club or department receives the money.

Martin Vece of Canyon Springs High School earned the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s People’s Choice Award, winning $10,000.

Any Clark County School District K-12 teacher could be nominated by their students, colleagues and families, Rogers said.

“They don’t go to work and go home and forget about it; they carry their schools with them on their backs and become counselors, mentors, role models, door openers and so much more than a figure at the top of the classroom giving a lecture,” she said.

Clark County School District Superintendent Pat Skorkowsky said he hopes the Heart of Education awards will generate a positive feeling toward education in the community.

“Many times we only hear the negative about education, and we don’t hear about amazing stories of teaching and learning that are happening in our building every day that our making our students lives better,” he said.

Skorkowsky added the hope that the awards send another important message.

“We hope that it will not only highlight our educators this year, but that it will promote educators to come to the Clark County School District because they have the opportunity to be honored in the same fashion and that it will send a message that we do value our teachers and the work they do in our classrooms every day,” he said.

Lucky for Skorkowsky, the Rogers Foundation plans to continue the awards event well into the future.

“We have committed to as long as it can go, and our sponsors have also agreed to continue this with us,” Rogers said. “This is inaugural event, and we want it to go on forever.”

Contact reporter Ann Friedman at afriedman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588. Follow @AnnFriedmanRJ on Twitter.