Newsroom
Riverside County correctional educator
named Teacher of the Year
 Yvette Hagerman, an alternative education teacher with the Riverside County Office of Education, has been named Correctional Education Teacher of the Year for the three-state region comprised of California, Nevada, and Arizona.
Hagerman, an instructor for nine years in RCOE’s court and community school settings, teaches at F.H. Butterfield Juvenile Detention Center in Riverside. She is to be honored at this month’s National Conference of the Correctional Education Association (CEA) in West Virginia.
“Yvette provides a positive learning environment and services to students whose only chance of succeeding in life may be with teachers like her,” said Dr. Vincent Chugbo, RCOE Coordinator/Principal for Riverside court schools.
“With the Juvenile Hall population constantly turning over and challenges that come with the students having a history of disjointed schooling, a lack of academic success and other psycho-social issues, we owe a big salute to teachers like Yvette who have devoted their lives to serving the needs of students in Correctional Education,” Chugbo said.
By state law, juveniles in detention facilities must receive the same educational opportunities as students in public schools. The Riverside County Office of Education, through its Alternative Education programs, provides this instruction at three locked detention facilities (including Butterfield), plus five other treatment and detention facilities across the county.
Court school students are given Individual Learning Plans, and receive tailored instruction in a core academic program designed to enable them to meet high school graduation requirements or acquire a G.E.D. They also receive instruction in pro-social behaviors and functional life skills. Under Riverside County Superintendent of Schools Kenneth Young, the goal is to ensure that all of the county’s students – including those in court schools – graduate well-prepared for college and the work force.
According to colleagues who nominated Yvette Hagerman for the regional award, she “exemplifies a total commitment to create the best possible instructional program for her students. She is constantly exploring ways to reach the students under the most difficult and challenging conditions."
Herself an award-winning student in both athletics (swimming and diving) and academics (Phi Beta Kappa), Hagerman is a graduate of San Diego State University and was selected Outstanding Teacher at Riverside’s Mission Middle School in 2001. She recently completed a credential in the Mild Moderate Special Education program and is finishing her Masters program in Special Education at California Baptist University.
The National Correctional Education Association’s mission is to prepare correctional students for a successful reentry into society by equipping them with academic, career/technical, and personal/social skills, and support correctional educators providing quality educational programs with opportunities for leadership, networking, publication, professional development, and personal growth.
For information contact:
Tom Willman, Public Information Officer
Telephone: (951) 826-6180
Fax: (951) 826-6199
twillman@rcoe.us
|
