Darylanne Towery, a third-grade teacher at Contentnea-Savannah K-8 School and LCPS’s 2021-2022 Teacher of the Year, has been chosen to serve on North Carolina’s new Teacher Leadership Council, one of 30 teachers statewide selected in the council’s inaugural cohort.

“I am so excited to be selected as one of the members,” Towery said. “This council will allow me to advocate for our needs, showcase what our district is doing, attend professional development across the state and network with colleagues. I will also be able to work with Department of Public Instruction (DPI) members and (state) Superintendent (Catherine) Truitt.”

According to DPI, the council will help strengthen communication channels with teachers across the state, allowing them to provide input and feedback on educational issues that affect them, their students and schools throughout the year. The council also will serve as a professional development opportunity for those who have an interest in teacher leadership.

 “I think this is a great opportunity to let teachers know they are being heard,” Towery said.

The council consists of representatives from the state’s eight educational regions, as well as charter schools. To ensure broad representation, members were also selected based on subject area, grade level and number of years in the classroom.

“I think they probably looked at Lenoir County Public Schools as a whole and how much we’ve grown over the last few years and at my being district Teacher of the Year at my age,” Towery said, speculating on her selection for the council. She is 29 years old and in her seventh year in the classroom, her fifth at CSS.

 The council is scheduled to meet monthly, whether virtual or in person. The meeting will cover teacher leadership opportunities, and discussion will be centered around ongoing initiatives, current events and challenges facing educators, according to DPI.

“We just try to contribute to meaningful discussion and activities about educational issues that we’re facing and how it affects education across the state,” Towery said. 

Two items high on her list of discussion topics are teacher retention – “because teacher burnout is so high right now” – and what the coronavirus pandemic taught public school systems about remote learning.

“I’d like to talk about how we can continue with remote learning when needed and the technology access that we have and how we can benefit kids across the state,” she said. “I do think there were a lot of positives that we’ve learned from Covid. They weren’t fun at all, but we learned a lot. How can we continue to implement that for our future students?”

The Teacher Leadership Council, launched by Secretary Truitt and unveiled to the State Board of Education by Julie Pittman, special advisor on teacher engagement, is co-chaired by Pittman and Maureen Stover, the 2020 Burroughs Wellcome North Carolina Teacher of the Year. Its work is supported by 2021 winner Eugenia Floyd.

“Convening this Teacher Leadership Council is an important way to stay in tune with the needs of those in the field through direct lines of communication,” Truitt said is a news release. “This group of leaders allows for the department to better understand and support educators, while providing an opportunity to engage directly with them on the challenges they face and how we can overcome them together.”

The council convened its first meeting in early November to discuss the state budget.