Honored Teacher, Miss Prescott Day

USA (SANEPR.com) May 30, 2008 -- City of Los Altos and Egan Middle School Alumni Recognize Blind Spanish Teacher, Sue Prescott

Miss Prescott Day Honors Teacher who Inspired 8,000 Students

On May 30, 2008, Miss Susan Prescott will be recognized for 40 years of teaching service to the community by alumni of Egan Middle School at the Los Altos Youth Center to proclaim Miss Prescott Day.

Miss Prescott is legally blind and has memorized the Spanish textbook and lesson plans that she uses in the classroom. “She’s irreplaceable, she’s an institution”, said Margaret Aozasa who had Miss Prescott 2002-2004, “to teach Junior High kids for 40 years…is so amazing. I’m in awe.” Those students fortunate enough to study under Miss Prescott consistently place into advanced Honors Spanish II and III programs in the local high schools.

Sue Prescott was born in 1946 in Corvallis, Oregon. She grew up in Eugene, attained a degree in Modern Languages at the University of Oregon and an MA in Education from Stanford in 1967. She began teaching in the Los Altos School District and has been teaching German and Spanish at Egan Junior High School since 1975.

“Miss Prescott leads her students by example, relying on intelligence, wit, humility and respect to teach young people all about excellence, “ reads the Proclamation.

“Whether her students ended up with an A or a C, they all became sufficiently fluent in Spanish to be dropped into a Spanish culture,“ said one parent of 5 sons, each of whom studied Spanish with Miss Prescott. Fritz Lanman, who had Miss Prescott from 1993-1995 said, “I never had a teacher as good as Miss Prescott until my junior year at Yale!”

She has taught over 8,000 students in Spanish and German at Egan. Said Todd MacLean, “It is quite an honor to see her legacy living on and to have Miss Prescott here doing the same thing, teaching my son, as she did for me from 1967 to 1969.”

Miss Prescott has had a lifelong interest in music. As a child she played the violin and has sung in choirs since college. She is also an avid traveler, visiting friends in Germany, Italy, England, Australia, Brazil and Mexico.

On June 7th, after 40 years of being “Miss Prescott” to all of her students, she will be married and become Mrs. Larry Kavinoky. Fortunately, when she is Mrs. Sue Prescott Kavinoky, she will continue teaching at Egan Junior High School this autumn.

About Egan School
Egan Junior High is a two-year school located in Los Altos, California. Egan is one of two junior highs in the distinguished Los Altos School District. Located in the northern part of the district, Egan provides an outstanding education to about 500 students in seventh and eighth grades.
Egan was selected as a California Distinguished School in 1988, with the review team praising the high caliber of instruction and teacher preparation. Egan is now designated as a Sustained Distinguished School. Over the last several years, Egan's API scores (API website) continually placed first, second, or third in the state. Please see Egan's 2006/07 API STAR Test results.
Egan’s mission is to develop to the fullest each student's intellectual potential to read, to write, and to reason both qualitatively and quantitatively, in an environment that fosters respect, responsibility, aesthetics, and love of learning. Egan is named for Ardis G. Egan, a former Superintendent of the Los Altos School District.

Contacts

Media: Alumni Representative
Heidi Groshelle Alanna Lanman
415-307-1380 650-906-4543