Harris and Scarano given Gold Key Award

By Sonja Young
Herald Staff Writer

December 13, 2005 09:08 am

— CLINTON — Luann Harris and Ellen Scarano are the most recent recipients of the Clinton School District’s Stan Reeves Gold Key Award. They were recognized at the November school board meeting for being leaders in the development of the district’s reading and math curriculum.
Bluff Elementary School Principal John Jorgensen described the two teachers as being a team.
“Ellen and Luann, Luann and Ellen. If you were going to spell their names together it would be ‘dot com’ — there would be no spaces in between,” Jorgensen said. “You really don’t talk about one without mentioning the other.”
According to Jorgensen they work together, they plan together, they strategize together. “They truly are a team and they function very well together.”
For years Harris and Scarano have focused their talents on the district’s reading and math curriculum.
“Next to (school superintendent) Dr. Clegg I am unaware of anyone in the Clinton schools who have a deeper knowledge of curriculum development, implementation, integration and on-going revision than Ellen and Luann,” Jorgensen told the board.
He also said the two teacher-leaders were directly responsible for leading the math curriculum, which is being recognized as the most progressive, well-designed and premier curriculum anywhere.
Retired Elijah Buell Elementary School Principal Jack Pringle recognized Harris and Scarano’s talents right from the beginning.
“Talk about the compatibility of these two people. It’s just amazing,” said Pribgle, who has known both teachers from many years.
“They’ve developed strong leadership skills over the years, but first of all they were exceptional teachers,” Pringle said. He described them as being on the cutting edge of the job sharing plan in Clinton. When they were both raising families and didn’t want to work full-time, Pringle was able to put together a half-time package for each of them and they shared a classroom at Buell.
“These two understand the complexity of teaching and the complexity of the child’s mind,” Pringle continued. “They developed strategies to involve the whole child in their learning and they were using ‘best teaching practices’ before that term became popular.”