“I guess we’ll have to do a better job next year.”

That was Bob Borden’s comment as he explained why the Upper Grand District School Board received just 18 nominations for its annual Everyday Hero Awards and its selection committee gave none of the 10 awards to a Dufferin resident.

Mr. Borden, the board’s chairman and Orangeville representative, attributed inadequate promotion of the awards for a lack of nominations from schools outside the Guelph area. While there were five from Guelph Centennial C.V.I. alone, there was just one nomination from Dufferin’s 10 elementary and three secondary schools, and the selection committee decided the lone nominee didn’t fully meet the criteria.

The Dufferin nominee was Kathy Dickson, office co-ordinator at Island Lake Public School. She and the other 17 nominees were honoured at a ceremony in Guelph Wednesday.

Although teachers dominated this year’s winners, Mr. Borden said the award can also go to others such as volunteers, school bus drivers, office staff, caretakers and administrators.

The annual awards, now three years old, celebrate the unsung heroes of the school system who go out of their way to make a difference in the lives and learning of students. The program is sponsored by the board trustees.

This year’s winners were Albert Boutin and David Duke, teachers at College Heights Secondary and Willow Road Public School, Guelph; Elise Dandy, a school volunteer at J. D. Hogarth Public School in Fergus; Lynne Flewwelling, school council chair at Maryborough Public School, Moorefield; Sarah

Garrett, a teacher at Guelph’s King George Public School; April King, Meghan Lowry-Freitag and Mike Parsons, all teachers at Guelph Centennial C.V.I.; Andrea Kretz, teacher at Guelph’s John F. Ross C.V.I.; Guelph; Jane Rocher, a teacher at Guelph’s Paisley Road Public School; Ian Turner, a teacher at Wellington Heights Secondary in Mount Forest, and Kathryn Cooper, a parent volunteer and the parents of the “Hawk goes Green” project, at Ross. R. MacKay Public School in Hillsburgh.

Criteria for the award are:

• Performance of duties at a high level at all times;

• A significant school and/or system-related achievement;

• A specific innovation or achievement of significant value or importance to the system;

• A unique circumstance considered worthy of recognition by the Board.

Candidates may be nominated by their colleagues, students, parents, and/or other system partners.

Last year, three Upper Grand employees in Dufferin were among 12 winners and 21 nominees.

The Dufferin winners were Jeanette French, a teacher at Centennial Hylands Elementary School in Shelburne, Sherry Harris, the caretaker at Primrose Elementary School and Bonnie Henderson, who volunteers at Mono-Amaranth Public School.