Clay Hildebrand, a sixth grade math teacher at Smokey Road Middle School, has been named as a finalist for Georgia Teacher of the Year.

Hildebrand is the 2007 Coweta County Teacher of the Year, after being named as Smokey Road’s top teacher by his peers. He was named as one of ten state 2009 Teacher of the Year (TOTY) finalists by State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox, at Thursday morning’s Georgia Board of Education Meeting.

Hildebrand, a former Marine, now moves to interviews where he will be considered as the top Georgia teacher for 2009.

The finalists for 2009 TOTY were chosen from a pool of 141 applicants that were selected as the TOTYs in their school districts, by a panel of judges that included teachers (including past Georgia winners and finalists), administrators, community leaders and others. The 10 finalists were chosen based on the scores of the essays on their applications.

"I want to offer my sincere congratulations to each of the finalists. I know that any one of them would make an excellent Georgia Teacher of the Year," said Superintendent Cox. "I'd also like to congratulate all of the district-level teachers of the year. Each of them is a shining star in their community and around the state."

Hildebrand was informed of his finalist status February 13 in a call from the State Department of Education.

“I was flattered just to be named Smokey Road’s Teacher of the Year last year, so I was really taken by surprise with that,” he said. “I told them I thought they had the wrong Clay Hildebrand.”

Hildebrand and Smokey Road Principal Laurie Barron announced the honor to school staff. Then they called Clay’s wife, Evans Middle School Improvement Specialist Christi Hildebrand, and Superintendent Blake Bass to tell them.

“Superintendent Bass asked me if I had called Christi first. That’s what I love about Coweta County,” said Hildebrand.

His students definitely think he deserves the honor.

“Mr. Hildebrand’s great. He really helps us out with things we don’t know, and he’s always teaching us new stuff,” said student Doriun Pittman.

“He deserves it because he’s really nice and a great teacher to have,” Payton Cofield added.

“He doesn’t just sit behind a desk. He really makes us work and he makes it fun,” said Joshua Morse.

Student Kim Jarrell summed it up. “He’s just the greatest teacher,” she said.

Principal Barron speaks highly of him, too. She hired the Hildebrands to teach at Smokey Road from Fulton County schools, where the two had taught since moving to Newnan from Florida.

“Mr. Hildebrand really is a great math teacher,” said Barron. “But it’s more than that. He volunteers at the school, he’s one of our teachers who tutor students on their own time after school on Monday nights, and he is involved in the community outside of school. He also really cares about students and you see that in how he knows every one of them and knows how to motivate them.”

“His students like him, and they definitely respect him. He is great academically and he knows and teaches the standards, but he goes beyond that. He earns what he gets from students by relating to them. Ultimately, who cares about teaching philosophy or any of that if you don’t care about kids first?” she said.

Hildebrand is in good company with the state TOTY distinction.

The Coweta County School System is the only school system in Georgia with three state teachers of the year, including Lorraine Johnson, Nancy Royal and Jamie Lipscomb. There have also been 13 Georgia TOTY semi-finalists from Coweta since 1986. Smokey Road Middle School teacher Pam Brown was one of those finalists.

Over the next month, a panel of judges will observe and interview each of the 10 finalists. The winner will be announced at the Georgia Teacher of the Year Banquet on May 9 at the Georgia Aquarium.

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