The annual teacher of the year competition has come to a close once again, with this year’s winner being resource social studies teacher David Mraz.

“It’s huge, actually I’m still kind of processing it, I didn’t think I would win something like this but it’s a great feeling,” Mraz said. “It was an absolute surprise, we found out that we were nominated last week and all the teachers here are so great but I didn’t think I would win.”

While the school holds its own competition every year, this time, the district came up with a criteria to use in all schools.

“The district this year has started the teacher of the year program and through it teachers were asked to nominate teachers on their campus,” principal Ashley Rainwater said. “ And during the process, they were asked to write about different teaches philosophy to education and how they stay apart of trends in education, so all these things were taken into consideration.”

Mraz’s job is not like others on campus, being a resource teacher, he is required to be able to teach all history subject to his students.

“He works very closely with social studies, he plans with the U.S. history team and the world history team,” social studies team lead Jeff Crowe said. “He does have to be a jack of all trades and he’s a great teammate and he’s a great collaborator and most importantly he’s a great advocate for the kids.”

Mraz uses his love for teaching to fuel his desire to make sure he’s doing the best he can.

“I’ve been teaching for about five years, it’s just something I’m passionate about, I always knew it was something I wanted to do and I love working with kids and making a difference.”