Rotary honors Sedona’s top three educators

The Rotary of Sedona Red Rocks celebrated National Teacher Appreciation Week by handing out plaques during its Teachers of the Year awards presentation on May 6.

Principals and teachers from Sedona Red Rock Jr./Sr. High School, West Sedona School and Sedona Charter School were all present during the celebration.

“We’re very grateful for a lot of teachers for a lot of things,” Rotary organizer Janene Heidelberg said, gesturing to the slideshow presentation. “I put up a few things here based on some of the kinds of things on the applications for the teachers of the year and I pulled them out.”

The presentation list included “Inspiring students to reach higher,” “Building new programs,” “Finding creative ways to teach a lesson” and “Using their skills to benefit others in the community.”

Hannah Landers

Hannah Landers, a Sedona Red Rock High School English and geometry teacher, has several ninth- and 10th-grade classes multiple times a day.

“She started with us last year, and she was an English Language Arts teacher,” SRRHS Principal Heather Isom said. “In the last minute, we had a math teacher who did not come and so Hannah said, ‘I’m not a math teacher, but I’ll do it.’”

Instead of the average five classes a day, Landers teaches six.

“She enjoys the math … I’ll tell you I walk into those classes, and I can’t leave them, because they’re so engaging,” Isom said.

Landers also helps out with Student Council, which Isom describes as another full-time job in itself, and volunteers at many school events.

“She’s there at 6 o’ clock in the morning and she’s there until 6 o’ clock at night,” Isom said. “She’s so dedicated, intelligent and student-first.”

Sara Horton

Sara Horton, a West Sedona School award-winning teacher, leads art classes for the whole school.

“She is going into each classroom and sharing something special for each of those different grades,” Heidelberg said.

Horton teaches watercolors, pastels, ceramics, among other art forms and inspires students greatly, Heidelberg said.

“I have been an administrator for elementary schools — this is my fifth building — and I can say 100% from the very part of me,” WSS Principal Alisa Steig said, gesturing to her heart, “that Sarah is the best art teacher I have ever known in any elementary school.”

Steig said she always recommends WSSteachers observe Horton, because she engages so well with the students.

“She is so service-oriented to families, to students, to all of our staff,” Steig said. “I just can’t say enough about how perfect this is, because she touches every single student at West Sedona School, and when they come out of her classroom, they are artists.”

Heather Basham

Heather Basham is the primary principal educator at Sedona Charter School, focusing on the younger students, and she runs the half-day preschool.

“We had some difficulty getting our licensing to add 3- and 4-year-olds to our kindergarten program,” SCS Executive Director Amy Fultz said. “Every week, I was going, ‘OK, it’s coming,’ and she was formulating her plan of habit to integrate younger children into our kindergarten program, which is a traditional Montessori classroom, and it went so smooth because of all of her planning.”

Basham also served as a leader for the Girl Scouts and a board member for the “More Than Self” nonprofit that supports community needs like water filters and textiles.

“She also founded Mama Gardening, a community group that supports thousands of women parents,” Heidelberg said.

Fultz said families appreciate how she cares for their children and the hard work she puts in for her classroom.