Morgan Rispoli’s advice: Prioritize student mental health, make mistakes
Delaware teacher, coach Morgan Rispoli gives some advice to her younger self: Prioritize student mental health, normalize learning from mistakes.
Morgan Rispoli, physical education teacher, Paul M. Hodgson Vo-Tech High School
Morgan Rispoli is more than the Paul M. Hodgson Vo-Tech High School teacher of the year.
She doesn’t just coach lacrosse at St. Mark’s High, or teach physical education back at Hodgson. Rispoli has been spearheading a suicide prevention and awareness program for her students. The 10-year educator helps young Delawareans identify mental health issues and find support within her class, as well as in partnership with SL24: UnLocke the Light Foundation – an organization created by the family of Sean Locke, the University of Delaware basketball player who battled depression and died by suicide.
Rispoli has organized events and speakers for the school, plans to see run her own “Sean’s Room” in the new Hodgson building and more – but her unofficial program really takes shape in every relationship with students and athletes.
As the sign on her office door tells it: “I’m glad you are here and you are welcome anytime.”
Nigel Caplan, professor, University of Delaware English Language Institute
Nigel Caplan is a professor at the University of Delaware’s English Language Institute and the catalyst and director of its Project DELITE – or Delaware English Learners’ Impact on Teacher Education.
Fueled by federal funds, the project just graduated its first cohort of educators last summer. And over five years, the work will see some 60 teachers and 15 paraprofessionals taking the UD courses necessary to be certified teachers of English learners or bilingual teachers.
At a time when immigration can seem under fire nationally, this project and related support aim to answer shortages and bolster education for multilingual learners throughout Delaware.
It’s “a lot of little impacts” in a niche area, Caplan said – but the percentage of multilingual learners in the First State has grown faster than any other. He estimates about 75% of these children were born in Delaware, and together they make up about 10% of students overall.
Nathalie Princilus, grants and programs supervisor, Christina School District
Nathalie Princilus supervises grants and unique programs in Christina School District.
Among other efforts, she led a district team ahead of this school year that crafted a package of professional development and resources – open for teachers, administrators, school board members alike – to help bolster goals in House Bill 198. That’s the historic legislation passed in 2021 that required all Delaware public schools to infuse instruction of Black history and experience into K-12 curricula. The deadline for such implementation also has passed, but it’s been a slow process.
By 2024, Delaware’s Department of Education officially launched statewide adoption of the course: “The Visual and Performing Arts: HB198 Self-Paced Coursework.”
Princilus is inspired by a drive to be like the educators who helped her younger sister navigate kindergarten with autism, so who knows what’s next in “creating opportunities for all students to pursue meaningful, purposeful and fulfilling lives.”
Michael Hill-Shaner, education associate, Delaware Department of Education
Michael Hill-Shaner is focused on the next generation.
The education associate in the Delaware Department of Education’s Career and Technical Education workgroup leads Delaware’s Teacher Academy and Educators Rising programs. He “works tirelessly,” per some fellow teachers, to ensure students and educators have access to resources and quality programming. All of this bolsters the state’s pipeline into early childhood and K-12 careers.
Something seems to be working. Delaware public schools started the year sharing a 2024 statewide survey that showed a 52% drop in open positions – that’s instructional and non-instructional – compared to the year before. That leaves 259 openings across public school districts, or 2.5% of the total workforce.
Work like his and other “Grow Your Own” programming have often shared some credit, but there’s more work to come.
Shelley Rouser: Delaware State University
She’s been called the “most dynamic” university education chair in the state.
Delaware State University’s Early Childhood Innovation Center is set to open its doors this spring, while it just marked its first year of operation this summer before new building’s completion. It was under Shelley Rouser’s leadership that the state’s only HBCU landed over $30 million in grant money to help make it happen. That joined just over $10 million from the American Rescue Plan Act.
It may only aim at those working with the youngest learners – or “little Hornets” as Rouser has put it – but impact is wide. After just year one, five childcare providers earned associate degrees, eight earned bachelor’s degrees in areas relating to early childhood education, and some 223 achieved stronger certification as “Child Development Associates,” according to DSU and Center Executive Director Kim Krzanowski.
That mission continues. Before DSU, Rouser spent some 25 years in K-12 education. Her work aims to build more equitable systems and boost Delaware’s diverse educators. She brings the same lens to the Wilmington Learning Collaborative as a project manager, as well as service on the Redding Consortium and more.
James ‘Ray’ Rhodes, community engagment director, EastSide Charter
Ray Rhodes has been recognized for his work in community engagement, student mentorship and STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – education.
An event hosted by Delaware Technical Community College honored the same this Black History Month.
For Rhodes, that work has most recently looked like helping to oversee EastSide Charter School’s $26 million STEM Hub as its community engagement director. He also serves as board chairman for Kingswood Community Center, poised for its own new building and massive expansion, while supporting the same charter school’s APEX Honors program.
The list goes on.
This “dynamic and charismatic leader” has devoted his career to empowering people and communities, per DelTech. And with that hub up-and-running this year, aimed at serving the surrounding community, he and his decorated team’s work only continues.
Khayree Bey, teacher, McCullough Middle School
Khayree Bey has collected accolades over the past five years: a Colonial School District Teacher of the Year, a Lt. Governor’s Challenge Wellness Leadership awardee, appointment to the Delaware’s Professional Standards Board, co-chapter head of the Coalition of Schools Educating Mindfully and more.
The educator and former U.S. Marine has been lauded for his work bringing “mindfulness” and destressing techniques into his health classroom, as well as to fellow teachers in professional development. But his work also touches on something that may feel challenged today: equity efforts.
Bey is one of the founding teachers for Colonial’s Educators of Color Committee, an early teacher affinity group created with aims to bolster “recruiting, assisting and maintaining” diverse educators and folding equity into professional development.
Today, he has been touted as an “affinity space leader,” among several district and statewide appointments. Bey believes that work is only growing in importance – as today’s pushback isn’t new.
Melissa Tracy, teacher, Odyssey Charter School
Melissa Tracy joined this list for the second time.
The educator of nearly two decades leads a food studies program unlike many others — from teaching students the importance of healthy food systems to transforming her room into a large hydroponic lab where students produce organic fruit and vegetables.
If that’s not enough, Tracy and her Odyssey Charter School high schoolers donate thousands of greens in the community each month – and just this year, opened a food pantry in the school to respond to increased need.
Last school year, she was a top-10 finalist for the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize, and she was honored for her innovation and farming tech. And she has stepped out of the garden. Tracy brings a teacher’s voice to the state Public Education Funding Commission, now tasked with reassessing the future of how Delaware funds its public schools.
Got another name? Another story of impact? Contact Kelly Powers at kepowers@gannett.com or Brandon Holveck at bholveck@delawareonline.com.