By Emily Stonehouse

Krista Patterson has grown up in the Haliburton Highlands, attending the local schools, and getting to know the local families. 

And now, she is giving back to those same schools that raised her. 

The elementary school teacher was recently presented with the Ontario Public School Boards’ Association achievement award, a provincial recognition which is designed to highlight an exemplary teacher who goes above and beyond for their school, their students, and their community as a whole. Patterson was the sole teacher celebrated amongst local schools. 

“It was really a surprise,” she shared, “I got an email over the summer saying I got the award, and I had never heard of it before, so it was a huge surprise.” 

Patterson now teaches a Grade 2 and 3 split class at Stuart Baker Elementary School (SBES), which is a role she settled into early this past fall. Prior to that, she was teaching at Cardiff Elementary School in Highlands East. “I’ve taught pretty much everything from kindergarten to Grade 3,” she chuckled, noting that she has spent time in many of the schools across the county, before settling into a routine at Stuart Baker. 

Her award was for the time she spent in Cardiff, and the beauty of this specific award is that it’s a nod that comes from outside the school. “You are nominated by a local family or a community member for excellence in teaching,” Patterson shared. “So it was really nice to be recognized for what we were doing out at Cardiff, at that school.” 

Patterson shared that it’s with mixed emotions that she switched from Cardiff to Stuart Baker early in the year. “It’s always hard to say goodbye to a school, to a community,” she said, “but SBES was where I was a student, so it’s a very full circle moment.” 

The young teacher graduated from teacher’s college in 2014 before returning to her hometown of Haliburton, where she started work with SIRCH and the well-known School’s Cool program, getting her foot in the door with the local school system before being offered a position as a kindergarten teacher, and gradually working through varying elementary levels at different local schools. 

She now feels settled at SBES, and looks forward to continuing her work with the school and the community in Haliburton. “Being a local, I know a lot of things that families have to deal with, so I feel happy to know that families feel good about the work I do,” she said. “Students are the most important part of the job, they’re the number one priority, and I try my best to support these students and their families.”