Three winners of the Citadel Heart of Learning Awards have been announced, selected from 1,200 nominated teachers in Chester County.

The winners are Mike Kelly of Kennett High School, Julie Myers of Penn's Grove Middle School, and Sally Bopp of West Chester Howse Elementary School. Each winner gets $1,500 for classroom use, and each also won $500 when they were named as finalists.

The awards began in 1991, sponsored by Citadel Banking and The Chester County Intermediate Unit. The 15 finalists represent each of the 13 Chester County school districts, as well as one teacher from the Chester County Intermediate Unit and one from a non-public school, including charter and home schools.

In a press release, Citadel announced:

“Mike Kelly is a 45-year veteran, teaching secondary mathematics with the Kennett School District. He is the Mathematics Department chairperson, the senior class advisor, president of the Kennett Education Association, and serves on the professional development, new teacher induction, and teacher evaluation committees.

“Ms. Myers is a gifted students teacher who has been with the Penn’s Grove Middle School for six years. She is a key member of the school improvement team, which analyzes the school level PVAAS data, Study Island data and other school-based assessments. In addition to performing her instructional duties, she collaborated with a seventh-grade math teacher to co-write and develop a new eighth-grade enrichment class called Academic Enrichment through Ipads.”

Mary C. Howse Elementary School principal Dr. Stephen Catrambone said, “Sally Bopp is a true consummate professional educator. She not only personally invests her own time, but her heart and soul go into every lesson she prepares. Sally can be seen bringing items in from her home from time to time to enhance and personalize instruction and when the night crew is cleaning, they often stop to chat as Sally is here well into the evening. She takes such pride in every student and especially enjoys maintaining contact with them even into adulthood. Many former students have come back to visit, some have written to her and some have even invited her to high school graduations, college graduations, special award ceremonies and even personal celebrations! Mary C. Howse is extremely fortunate to have our ‘Sally’!”

For more information about the Citadel Heart of Learning Award visit www.citadelbanking.com.