The Delaware Department of Education is honoring 20 educational support professionals for their outstanding work supporting their students and school communities.

“Educational support professionals play many important roles in our school system. From providing individual instruction and behavior support to registering children for school and transporting them there, their work is what keeps our schools running and our students thriving. They make sure our children have clean and safe hallways, working technology and healthy meals,” Secretary of Education Mark Holodick said. “While vital, their work often is behind the scenes. I’m honored to be able to put a spotlight on these educational support professionals and the many colleagues they represent for their outstanding work and important roles in our schools.”

Now in its fifth year, the Delaware State Educational Support Professional of the Year (ESPOY) program recognizes outstanding service by school employees who provide direct or indirect services to students and their families. The Delaware Charter School Network also is invited to participate. Employees considered for the award include:

• Paraprofessionals
• Custodial staff
• Secretaries
• Nutritional staff
• Information technology staff
• School- and district-employed bus drivers
• School- and district-employed bus aides

From those nominated at a building level, one educational support professional of the year moves forward to represent each district or the charter school community in the state program. Each district/charter network winner receives a $2,000 personal award from the winner’s district or charter school.

The state program then chooses one person annually to serve as Delaware's Educational Support Professional of the Year. The state honoree receives an additional $3,000 personal award from DDOE as well as $5,000 to be used for the educational benefit of his or her students.

The 2025 state winner will take over the title from 2024 Delaware Educational Support Professional of the Year Sinead Ronan, a paraprofessional/library specialist at Magnolia Middle School in the Caesar Rodney School District.

A selection committee made up of DDOE and non-DDOE judges is reviewing the local winners' state applications, and the state honoree will be announced at Delaware’s statewide ESPOY celebration Dec. 2 in Dover. The event will be live-streamed to DDOE’s YouTube and facebook accounts following the dinner portion of the evening; likely this will begin around 7:15 p.m.

The 2025 honorees are:

• Appoquinimink: Tina Finch, school secretary, Bunker Hill Elementary School
• Brandywine: Howard Laws, district mail courier, SITE Program 
• Caesar Rodney: LaToya Smith, special education paraprofessional, W. Reily Brown Elementary School
• Cape Henlopen: Zachary Coffman, computer lab manager, Milton Elementary School
• Capital: Leisha Rutkowski, administrative secretary, Capital District Office
• Charter Network: Brandon Gray, behavior interventionist, Kuumba Academy Charter School
• Christina: Donna Smith, paraprofessional, Shue-Medill Middle School
• Colonial: Gabriel Phillips, strategic communications specialist, Colonial District Office
• Delmar: Robin Cox, in-school intervention paraprofessional, Delmar Middle & Senior High School
• Indian River: Allison Wright, paraprofessional, Indian River High School
• Lake Forest: Ann Busker, paraprofessional, Lake Forest North Elementary School
• Laurel: Sara Jo Whaley, multilingual learner paraprofessional, Laurel Middle High School
• Milford: Kyle Moore, student information systems specialist, Milford Curriculum Office
• New Castle County Vo-Tech: Grace Miller, instructional paraprofessional, Delcastle Technical High School
• POLYTECH: Breahna Pierce, paraprofessional, POLYTECH High School
• Red Clay Consolidated: Bernice Witmer, lead nutrition worker, Early Learning Center
• Seaford: Emma J. Trammell, paraprofessional, Seaford Middle School
• Smyrna: Melissa Wilson, registration administrative assistant, Smyrna Elementary School
• Sussex Tech: Domineque Scott, coordinator of student activities and student government, Sussex Technical High School
• Woodbridge: Heather Ray Taylor, enrollment/finance secretary, Woodbridge Early Childhood Education Center