HHS' Michaelis named outstanding teacher
By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN
At her job, and in everyday life, Jeanie Michaelis just goes about her business.
So getting recognized for her work is sometimes surprising -- and humbling.
This time, the Hays woman couldn't avoid being the center of attention, though.
Michaelis, a business teacher at Hays High School, has been named outstanding secondary school teacher of the year by the Kansas Business Education Association.
She was honored at the organization's annual convention in Wichita earlier this month.
And while Michaelis never told her colleagues of the award beforehand, they were ready for some surprises of their own when she returned.
"I just come here and do what I can for the kids," Michaelis said of her job at Hays High. "I don't like to be in the spotlight; that's really hard for me."
"She does fly under the radar, but she refuses to say 'no' to anyone, a real caring person," said Tom Albers, assistant principal in charge of the business department at Hays High.
Albers said students "know right off the bat" where they stand with Michaelis.
"She has high expectations, but she's consistent and fair," he said.
Michaelis attends the KBEA convention nearly every year, but was going to skip it this year because it was on the same weekend as Hays High's homecoming.
But she decided to go anyway after several people on the KBEA board e-mailed her and encouraged her to come.
Michaelis got a substitute for her classes, and the rest of the teachers in her department knew she was going to the convention.
But she never let out a peep of her impending honor. They heard it from the substitute teacher.
"I knew I was nominated, but I didn't think I would get it," said Michaelis, who admitted she wondered a little what was up when she received so many e-mails from board members.
Those who work with her day in and day out weren't surprised she was honored.
"She's the most dedicated person I've every worked with," said Suzie Stark, a business teacher at Hays High along with Michaelis the past 10 years. "The hardest worker ... everything she gets accomplished, I'm curious if the woman ever sleeps."
Getting things done has become a habit for Michaelis, chairwoman of the HHS business department who also teaches classes at Fort Hays State University.
Michaelis didn't return to college until her two daughters reached elementary-school age. She graduated from Fort Hays State University in December 1996 with a degree in business and substitute taught in the district that spring semester.
There were no openings in the business department at Hays High that fall, so she took a job as a math teacher at HHS to get her foot in the door.
The very next year, a business position opened up at the school, and she's been there ever since.
Besides her duties as a teacher at both Hays High and FHSU, Michaelis also does a lot of volunteering in the community, said Stark, who added Michaelis gets students involved in volunteerism as well.
"She'll go do Meals-on-Wheels and have some of the kids go with her," said Stark, who added Michaelis also volunteers her time at a local nursing home..
Students obviously are a big part of Michaelis' life.
Because of parent-teacher conferences earlier in the week, students and teachers in Hays USD 489 have a couple of days off today and Friday.
Michaelis had planned to take some students to a conference in Colorado today, but the trip was canceled because of a snowstorm.
"Even on her days off, she's with students," Stark said.
Helping students learn, in a variety of ways, is something Michaelis relishes.
She attended Kansas State University in Manhattan for a year after high school, then took a job in Denver.
Michaelis later married and decided it was important to be a stay-at-home mom.
It wasn't until the mid-1990s that she went back to school.
"I always, always wanted to get my degree," Michaelis said.
"I was thrilled when my family encouraged me to go back to school," she said of her husband, Mike, and daughters Erin and Katy, now grown and living in other states.
Michaelis said she was "very, very humbled," by the teacher-of-the-year award.
"Very honored," she said, "because there's a lot of good people out there."
She's obviously one of them.
"She's a dandy. We have some very, very good teachers here, and she stands out," Albers said. "She understands what it takes in the outside world to be successful, and she wants to help (students) get there."