Teacher Spotlight: Cate Ruebling

By: Staff Writer Deeksha Raina 

Health teacher Cate Ruebling is MSJ’s nominee for the Fremont Schools Management Association sponsored Teacher of the Year Award, an award that recognizes teacher excellence in the classroom.

Her nomination is part of a statewide competition to find the best teacher of the year. All 42 schools in the FremontUnifiedSchool District are required to nominate a teacher for the award. FUSD administrators then screen all the applications and interview the top eight teachers. From there, one teacher is selected and moves on to the AlamedaCounty level. The top teacher chosen in that round will move onto a statewide competition for the title of California’s Teacher of the Year. All 42 nominations were submitted to the district in early April and the top eight teachers were selected and interviewed around April 16.

Each school chose their nominee differently. For MSJ, principal Zack Larsen asked for input from the department chairs and the assistant principals to determine which teacher was best qualified for the Teacher of the Year Award. Ruebling said of her nomination, “I was blown away. I was really surprised. When I come in, I do things because I want to do them with the kids. I really enjoy working with the kids.”

On May 6^th, all 42 nominees will attend a celebration at the district office from 3:30 to 5:00. There, each teacher will be recognized for being nominated. The eight finalists and the final FUSD teacher of the year will also be announced.