OUTSTANDING STAFF — Jami Packer, left, Brooke County Schools’ Teacher of the Year; and Karen Fox, right, the school district’s Service Personnel Member of the Year; appeared with Jennifer Sisinni, principal of Brooke Middle School, where both work; at Monday’s Brooke County school board meeting. -- Warren Scott

WELLSBURG — On Monday, the Brooke County Board of Education recognized staff and students for a variety of positive achievements.

Among them were Jami Packer, Brooke County Schools’ Teacher of the Year; and Karen Fox, the school district’s Service Personnel Member of the Year.

Superintendent Jeff Crook noted it’s been a big year for Packer, who also was named the West Virginia Council of Math Teachers’ Middle/Junior High School Teacher of the Year.

A Brooke County native, Packer moved with her family to Florida as a teen and graduated from Osceola High School, going on to Oral Roberts University and California State Polytechnic University.

Packer taught in the Golden State and in Ontario, Canada for a time but a desire to raise her family in the same environment as her own childhood brought her back to Brooke County.

Crook noted Packer started in the school district as a special education teacher before gravitating to math, a subject close to her heart.

Currently a math instructor at Brooke Middle School, she was one of 34 educators in the state to be named a Mountaineer Mathematics Teacher by West Virginia University.

The designation, which she shares with Brooke High School math instructor Karen Keener, has involved training in teaching strategies designed to improve students’ math skills and sharing those methods with fellow teachers.

Packer also has networked with other educators through the West Virginia Council of Math Teachers, for which she will serve as president in June.

It’s the second time Packer has been named Brooke County’s Teacher of the Year.

Crook said he has observed Packer in the classroom and has found her lessons to involve problem-solving, hands-on activities and creativity.

“She is one of the best teachers I’ve seen in 29 years,” he said, while telling Packer, “You truly are an inspiration, you truly are one of the best teachers and represent Brooke County Schools very well.”

Crook noted both Packer and Fox are employed at Brooke Middle School, which is headed by Principal Jennifer Sisinni.

He noted Fox started in the school district as a substitute custodian in 2002 and through the years has worked at the high school, Brooke Intermediate North, Brooke Primary North and the former Follansbee Middle School as well as the middle school, where she heads the custodial department.

“The kids and staff love her,” said Crook, who added Fox is known as a hard worker who cheerfully takes on whatever task is required of her.

Of her job, Fox said, “I like it because I’m always busy. I like being busy.”

The school board also recognized Michelle Mahan, a substitute aide at Brooke Primary South who applied the Heimlich maneuver to a choking student on March 21.

“Thanks to Michelle’s quick actions, she saved the life of that student,” said Crook.

Mahan said she learned to perform the life-saving technique through training provided by the school district.

“Brooke County Schools has a lot of training for their personnel,” she said, adding that includes cardiopulmonary resuscitation and the use of an automated external defibrillator to aid a heart attack victim.

Mahan said after finding a boy was choking on a piece of meat while at lunch, she applied three abdominal thrusts to dislodge it from his throat.

Michalene Mills, the school’s principal, said she observed Mahan’s actions in video images captured of the incident and was impressed by her calm demeanor.

Mahan said knowing other staff at the school were ready to help made it easier to do what was needed.

The board also recognized the following students for their athletic and academic accomplishments:

• Brooke High School basketball players Garret Milam, who was named to the All-OVAC Second Team; Leyton Toepfer, who was named to the conference’s First Team; and Peyton Toepfer, who was named to the First Team also, received All-State Honorable Mention from the West Virginai Secondary Schools Activities Commission, and attained his 1,000 point on the court this year.

• Brooke High School basketball players Rylee Schwertfeger, who was named to the All-OVAC First Team; and Maggie Diserio, who was named to the conference’s second team.

• Brooke High School wrestlers Landon Burdine, who placed fifth in the OVAC Tournament and sixth in the state tournament for his weight class; Gavin Moore, who placed seventh in the OVAC Tournament for his weight class; Joey Rea, who placed seventh in the OVAC Tournament for his weight class; and Sophie Diaz, who placed fourth in the state tournament for her weight class.

• Brooke Middle School pupils Sophia Tacozza, Carter Nielson and Andrew Pintus, who have been named to the West Virginia Golden Horseshoe Society for being among West Virginia eighth graders with the highest scores on a state exam testing their knowledge of the state’s history, geography, culture and current events.

They and the top students from each of the state’s 55 counties have been invited to a June 11 induction ceremony in Charleston.

The ceremony was inspired by an event in West Virginia history.

In the early 1700s Alexander Spotswood, then governor of Virginia, organized a party of about 50 men to explore an area of the state west of the Allegheny Mountains, most of which is now West Virginia.

At the end of the journey, Spotswood presented each with a golden horseshoe on which was inscribed, in Latin, “Thus it was decided to cross the mountains” on one side and on the other, “Order of the Golden Horseshoe.”

Thus, the men became known as the Knights of the Golden Horseshoe, and students named to the Golden Horseshoe Society are dubbed knights and ladies.