Sablan was accompanied by her leadership team and the Board of Education led by Chairwoman Lucia Blanco-Maratita to inform Bermudes about the good news.
“Honestly, this is unexpected,” said Bermudes, the daughter of Senate clerk Dolores Bermudes and Commonwealth Ports Authority legal counsel Jose Bermudes.
The 27-year-old third grade teacher has been with GTC for four years now, a job she finds rewarding.
“It is always something that I wanted to do. I want to make sure that these kids get a good education. It is all about the students,” she said.
Also yesterday, Herman Villagomez of William S. Reyes Elementary School won the 2011 Teacher Aide of the Year Award while Rota High School’s Sgt. Maj. Herman Atalig, a JROTC instructor, was named the 2011 Instructor of the Year.
Bermudes, who has a degree in elementary education, has also been a teacher mentor for the School of Education of Northern Marianas College.
“The Public School System is celebrating the excellence of our teachers and staff. We are thankful for their dedication. We thank everyone for their continued sacrifice,” Blanco-Maratita said.
Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan, who flew in from the nation’s capital to join the culmination of the Education Month celebration, said: “For me, GTC Elementary School is one of the best in the CNMI.”
“You have a very special reason to celebrate today,” the congressman told the Home of the Binadu.
Bermudes will share this distinction along with the rest of the nation’s outstanding educators whom she will meet this January in the nation’s capital where they will be congratulated by President Obama.
This is already the second time that GTC won the top education honor. In 2006, Charlotte Camacho, then a first grade teacher, won the PSS-wide award.
Camacho, now the school principal, is proud of Bermudes.
“She pays attention to teaching very seriously. She is focused on the academics but she is also going beyond instruction: she is helping students develop their social skills and build character. We are just elated and proud of her accomplishments.”
