JCPS names Teacher of the Year finalists

Jefferson City Public Schools has announced the six teachers in the district who are finalists for the 2019 Eisinger Teacher of the Year Award:

Jessica Deschu, Southwest Early Childhood Center.

Julie Maassen, Jefferson City High School.

Regina Roe, Jefferson City High School.

Tessa Scheperle, West Elementary School.

Jody Thomas, Thomas Jefferson Middle School.

Jennifer Uptergrove, Lawson Elementary School.

The six finalists were selected by the members of the Teacher of the Year Selection Committee - comprised of Jefferson City area community members - who chose finalists based on written applications submitted in February, according to a news release from the Jefferson City Public Schools Foundation.

The selection committee will interview the six finalists in person, and the Eisinger Teacher of the Year and Eisinger Outstanding Educator award recipients will be named at the school district's annual Staff Appreciation Banquet. The banquet is scheduled April 25 at Lewis and Clark Middle School.

Jana Forck, Jefferson City High School math and Project Lead the Way engineering teacher, was last year's Eisinger Teacher of the Year award winner. Jessica Long, Cedar Hill Elementary School kindergarten teacher, was the 2018 Eisinger Outstanding Educator. Forck and Long each won $1,000.

The Eisinger awards are named after and sponsored by former JCPS teacher and Missouri Teacher of the Year award winner Linda Eisinger, who four years ago said she and her husband, Don, would fund the awards for 15 years.