Teacher of the Year Program

Congratulations 2024-2025 Teacher of the Year Kathleen Thomas, Marco Antonio Firebaugh High School

Kathleen Thomas Butiu is an English and Theater teacher at Marco Antonio Firebaugh High School. She has taught various grade levels of English over the past 20 years, as well as Theatre for the past ten years. For the past three years, she has served as the coordinator for the International Baccalaureate program in addition to teaching IB English and IB Theatre.

Originally from the Chicagoland area, Ms. Thomas Butiu attended the University of Colorado Boulder, North Park University, and Cal State Long Beach, where she earned her bachelor’s in Creative Writing and teaching credential. She earned an M.S. in Adolescent Literacy and Technology from Walden University.

Since 2010 she has advised the Young Actor’s Guild, a student-centered acting club that produces several productions a year, including a musical. For years, students have performed their art for the community.

“Over the years, we’ve developed relationships with the elementary schools that attend our productions. Now I’ve had several students in my theatre program who have attended our productions as elementary students and felt inspired to pursue theatre in high school. We focus on student leadership, creativity, and character building.”

In the spring 2025, Mrs. Thomas Butiu arranged for The Young Actor’s Guild to perform Mean Girls, Jr. for sixth graders from two district elementary schools. Firebaugh Theatre students welcomed the elementary students and hosted a talkback session for students to discuss some of the issues in the musical, such as self-image and friendship, uniting the students with art and collaboration.

Kathleen Thomas Butiu

Marco Antonio Firebaugh High School

“I am a lifelong learner and lover of literature and the arts. In my English classes, I love studying culturally relevant and engaging literature that sparks curiosity and discussion among my students.”

Mrs. Thomas Butiu and her students started the Evergreen gardening club in the spring of 2024 and applied for various grants to build a school garden. In August 2024, they received grants from the California Teacher’s Association and the Whole Kids Foundation. She worked with the district and site administrators to develop an expansive school garden on an empty lot at Firebaugh High School.

This past school year, over 200 students participated in building a school garden with 23 raised beds for vegetables, a butterfly garden, and an orchard with over a dozen fruit trees. In addition to receiving the aforementioned grants, Mrs. Thomas Butiu also received a grant from the Lynwood Partners Foundation and donations from various organizations such as Kellogg’s Garden Soil, Epic Gardening, and SLA, bringing the total of grants and donations to Firebaugh’s school garden to over $20,000.

This past school year, she created a school garden pilot program where various classes helped build and care for the space, leading up to the grand opening event held on Earth Day this spring. Students from the Evergreen Gardening Club led the ribbon cutting ceremony with Mrs. Thomas Butiu declaring “this is a hands-on, inclusive program where any student can learn to grow- no experience is necessary.”

She is currently developing a plan for students to harvest the produce and create a monthly farmstand for the community to pick up the produce.

California Teachers of the Year

A component of the California Department of Education (CDE) California School Recognition Program (CSRP), the California Teachers of the Year (CA TOY) Program highlights educational innovation, student learning, and the rewards of teaching. The purpose of the CA TOY Program is to honor the teaching profession and to heighten interest in teaching as a career. The program affords the opportunity to bring attention to teachers who successfully employ strategies to increase academic success and narrow the achievement gap among a range of students. Further, the program attracts public attention to the positive aspects of our educational system. Teacher quality and recruitment as well as retention ranks high on every educational agenda in the state.

In 1972, California began recognizing outstanding teachers to provide an opportunity for fostering educator excellence. Former State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson appointed an Educator Excellence Task Force to focus on the Educator Quality element of the Blueprint for Great Schools (released in August 2011) and designed to strengthen California's teacher corps. Information about the Educator Excellence Task Force, and their recommendations on how to strengthen California's teacher and administrative corps, can be found on the CDE Educator Excellence Task Force web page. The CA TOY process is part of the teamwork and collaboration in place to meet those recommendations. The experienced teachers selected as CA TOYs reflect the diversity of our teachers and students.

The program's goals are to:

Identify and honor exemplary and highly qualified teachers throughout California within a structure of local, regional, and statewide recognition activities.
Make the application process accessible to all teachers in the state.
Encourage the participation of teachers in local and county selection processes who reflect the rich diversity of their students.
Increase the participation of small or underrepresented counties.
Select articulate teachers to serve as CA TOYs who will effectively represent the state's teachers; motivate and inspire other educators; and champion the positive contributions of the teaching profession.
Identify one teacher to compete in the National TOY Program.

Information about CA TOY duties and responsibilities can be found on the CDE California TOY Duties web page.

In addition, each year one of the CA TOY Awardees is selected to compete in the National TOY Program. Many of the CA TOY Awardees have ultimately become National TOY recipients or finalists. Information about the National TOY Program can be found on the Council of Chief State School Officers National Teacher of the Year Program website.

Eligibility Criteria

The CDE invites county offices of education (COEs), school districts, charter schools, professional organizations, and private schools statewide to participate in the CA TOY Program. To be eligible for the CA TOY Program, candidates must:

Be fully credentialed teachers currently employed to teach any pre-kindergarten through grade twelve curriculum to children or adults.
Have completed eight years of teaching at the time of the application submitted at the local level.
Be employed full-time, or as long-term substitutes in public or private schools. Applicants may be assigned some administrative duties if teaching is the primary responsibility.
Have demonstrated leadership and innovation in and outside of the classroom walls that embodies lifelong learning.
Have expressed themselves in an engaging and articulate way.
Be available to fulfill ambassadorial duties during the year of service and be supported by their employer.
Have been named as a finalist in their local or county competition.

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