The winners for the Teacher, Teacher’s Assistant, Administrator and Parent of the Year for the Vicksburg Warren School District were announced this week.

Winners were nominated and voted on by their peers based on their demonstration of exemplary performance in their respective positions.

The Teacher of the year award went to Megan Carney, who teaches fifth-grade English language arts at Bovina Elementary School.

Miki McCann, Principal of Bovina Elementary, nominated Carney for the award.

“She is very talented and gifted in numerous areas. She is on the school leadership team and is a mentor to several teachers,” McCann said. “Megan’s (English language arts) scores are always at the top of the district. She has a great rapport with students and parents and is very respected by the staff at the school.”

Alicia Wright won the VWSD Teacher’s Assistant of the Year award. Wright assists in teaching first graders at Warrenton Elementary School. She has worked at the school since 2019.

Derrick Reed, The principal of Warrenton Elementary, considers Wright a valuable asset to the school.

“Mrs. Wright impacts students every day by being actively engaged with students in order to teach them the necessary skills for them to be successful,” he said.

The Parent of the Year award was given to Kimberly Nailor, who has two sons in the district and also happens to serve as Vicksburg’s City Attorney.

Tameka Hyland, Ed.D. is the principal of Vicksburg High School and was responsible for nominating Nailor for the award. She mentioned Nailor’s help in planning and implementing mock trials to teach legal concepts to students.

“Attorney Nailor dedicates her time to help our students in the Health and Human Services Academy become excellent at practicing law,” Hyland said. “In addition, she has invited other members of the community, including her sister Judge Toni Terrett to assist our students in understanding the law and using critical thinking skills to make learning relevant.”

Hyland added that Nailor “pours into students and inspires them to dream big.”

The award for Administrator of the Year for VWSD went to Lakesha Batty, Principal at Vicksburg Intermediate School.

Batty has been with VWSD since 2006 and has been the principal of the school since 2020.

Superintendent Chad Shealy praised Batty’s drive to ensure her students receive a quality education.

“Mrs. Batty is extremely mission-driven and she has earned the respect of her team and her peers. She is getting results through the implementation of reliable systems and we are very proud of her,” Shealy said. “She is deserving of this honor and I’m excited to see Vicksburg Intermediate’s continued progress under her leadership.”

The VWSD winners for Teacher, Administrator and Parent of the Year will go on to compete with the winners from the other public school districts across Mississippi.

One finalist for each of the state’s four congressional districts will be selected by the Mississippi Department of Education (MDE) to move on to compete to be the winner in their respective categories statewide.

The finalists for the congressional districts are tentatively scheduled to be announced in March, with the statewide winners scheduled to be announced in April.