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Our county certainly has much to be proud of in the accomplishments of the teachers, staff and administrators of our Citrus County School System. The current beacon of educational excellence is Citrus High Schools teacher Jerome Swiatek. Earlier this month, he was chosen over 2,800 teachers nationwide to be recognized as the Project Lead the Way 2022-23 National Computer Science Teacher of the Year.

Project Lead the Way (PLTW) is a national nonprofit organization that works with US students at all grade levels in the areas of science, engineering and biomedical science. Each year PLTW recognizes teachers who inspire, engage and empower their students.

Mr. Swiatek has been teaching at Citrus High School for 13 years. He was a founder of the CHS Academy of Computer Science and served as the first science teacher for the program. Since its beginning in 2017, the program has grown from 40 students to more than 200 students.

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During the recognition ceremony at Citrus High, the president of PLTW celebrated Mr. Swiateks accomplishments with his students, noting his leadership of his students in taking classroom learning into the outside world. The students who were present at the ceremony spoke of his impact on them. They recognized his passion for teaching and the fact that he cares about their futures.

Mr. Swiatek is the latest in an extensive list of teachers, staff and administrators from Citrus County who have been recognized at the state and national levels for excellence in working with our students.

Crystal River High School teacher Danielle Doherty-Koch received the 2021-22 Kern Teacher of the Year Award from PLTW for empowering student experiences and transforming teaching in biomedical science.

Our Assistant Superintendent Scott Hebert was selected as the Florida Teacher of the Year in 1999. Since then, our county has had several finalists for the Florida Teacher of the Year recognition.

In 2020, Citrus Springs Middle Schools Althea Council was named the Florida School Related Employee of the year. Additionally, Citrus has recently had five finalists in this category.

Superintendent Sandra Sam Himmel was selected as the Florida Superintendent of the Year in 2020 by the Florida Association of District School Superintendents.

These are but a few of the fine individuals that we have working with our students in Citrus County schools. The employees of our school system make a positive difference each and every day in the lives of our children.

The mission statement of the Citrus County School District is: Where learning is the expectation and caring is the commitment. It is clear that our School District and its employees take this mission very seriously each and every day as they educate our students to be successful citizens.

Congratulations to Jerome Swiatek on his recognition as National Computer Science Teacher of the Year by PLTW. You have made our county proud.

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CHS teacher named National Computer Science Teacher of the Year - Citrus County Chronicle