Date:  December 12, 2002
Contact: Irene Cromer
(703) 791-8720

 Four teachers have earned certification from the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, an independent, non-profit organization governed by classroom teachers, school administrators, school board leaders, governors and state legislators, higher education officials, teacher union leaders, and business and community leaders.  They were recognized with certification in the following areas for meeting a set of standards established by the National Board that define the knowledge, skills, and accomplishments that comprise teaching excellence:  Hilary Alexander, a reading specialist at Saunders Middle School, Early Childhood/Generalist; Mark Groom, a third grade teacher at Leesylvania Elementary School, Early Childhood/Generalist; Ramona Hauptman, a kindergarten teacher at Mountain View Elementary School, Early Childhood/Generalist; and Julia Hicks, a math teacher at Woodbridge Senior High School, Adolescence /Young Adult Mathematics.  They will be recognized by the Prince William County School Board at a reception on December 18.

 The mission of the National Board is to establish high and rigorous standards for what accomplished teachers should know and be able to do; to develop a national voluntary system to assess and certify teachers who meet these standards; and to advance related education reforms to improve student learning in American schools.  The standards support a vision of teaching based on five core propositions, which are: 1) teachers are committed to students and their learning; 2) teachers know the subjects they teach and how to teach those subjects to students; 

3) teachers are responsible for managing and monitoring student learning; 4) teachers think systematically about their practice and learn from experience; and 5) teachers are members of learning communities.

 Hilary Alexander came to the school division this year and is a reading specialist at Saunders Middle School.  Previously she was employed by Stafford County Public Schools as a second and third grade teacher and a Title 1 reading specialist.  Alexander served on the Leadership Team, School Improvement Plan Committee and At Risk Committee.  She wrote a grant proposal, which was funded, to support the science and social studies SOLs through the use of literature.

 Committed to teaching, Alexander tries to develop the social, emotional, physical, and intellectual needs of the whole child.  She encourages children to learn by adapting her lessons based on her students’ specific learning styles, developing their skills and feelings of self-worth, and fostering independent thinking.  Her ultimate goal is to develop children’s character, making them successful citizens who contribute to society.

 A graduate of the University of Maryland with a B.A. in Psychology, Alexander earned a Masters in Education as a reading specialist with a 4.0 GPA from George Mason University.
 Mark Groom has taught third grade at Leesylvania Elementary School since 1995.  He developed S.O.A.R. (Students Own Applied Research) that uses a reading/writing workshop and research approach to learning and co-developed a multi-age program for second and third graders.  As a co-writer of the PWCS curriculum Critical Attributes and previous third grade mathematics assessments, he also co-planned and conducted staff development workshops and in-services in Reading and Writing Workshops, Technology Integration, Blooms Taxonomy, Information Management and Scientific Processes for Student Research.  Groom served as faculty council representative for third grade, and Multi-cultural and Gifted and Language Arts committees.  He has instructed SOL tutoring programs and has managed the Saturday School Program for behaviorally challenged students.  Groom has instructed visually impaired and special education students in inclusion classrooms and behaviorally challenged students on the homebound curriculum.

 Currently enrolled in a Master of Arts in Educational Leadership at George Mason University, Groom also earned a M.A. in Education (Institute of Educational Transformation) from there.
 Ramona Hauptman, a kindergarten teacher at Mountain View Elementary School, has been a teacher since 1979 when she received her Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from University of Virginia.  She also received a M.A. in Teaching from George Mason University.
 Hauptman has taught in Prince William County since 1987, instructing fifth graders at Gainesville Elementary School and second graders at Henderson Elementary School.  Previous teaching positions include Fort Steward, Georgia; Dover, Delaware and Palmyra, Virginia.  She serves as a new teacher mentor and was formerly a homebound instructor for the school division.  Hauptman was vice-president of the Stonewall Middle School PTO and vice president of the Board of Directors, Back 2 Basics Christian Education Center in Haymarket.

 Julia Hicks is the Math Department Chair at Woodbridge Senior High School and has taught there since 1988.  Formerly she taught in Amherst, New York; Guam Public Schools and in Mesa, Arizona.  For the past three summers she was selected to attend the AP Statistics Leadership Institute at the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics in Durham.  Fifty teachers were chosen to become leaders and worked with practicing statisticians to develop classroom materials that are now posted on the web and are available to all teachers.  Hicks was formerly a member of the Virginia Mathematics Standards of Learning Revision-Leadership Committee.  She has served on numerous other state and local committees and has spoken at many local, state and regional conferences on various topics related to mathematics.  Hicks is a member of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and Virginia Council of Teachers of Mathematics.

 A graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio with a B.A., Hicks received a M.Ed. from George Mason University in 1990.  She is currently taking graduate courses in statistics at George Mason University.

 Other National Board Certified Teachers in Prince William County include Rebecca Sanderson, Language Arts teacher at Bull Run Middle School; Lois Roy, English teacher at Stonewall Jackson High School; Cynthia Baird, math teacher at Brentsville District High School; Jennifer Rhawn, math teacher at Brentsville District High School; Karen Mirkovich, first grade teacher at Swans Creek Elementary School; Blake Nicolai, formerly a teacher at New Dominion Alternative School; and Lyndy VanHoutan, gifted education teacher at Marshall Elementary School.