Above photo, Randi Muehlen, a first-grade teacher at Elderberry Elementary School in the Ontario-Montclair School District

San Bernardino, CA – The San Bernardino County Board of Education will honor three countywide Teachers of the Year during a ceremony in October.

The teachers will be recognized during a recognition event on Oct. 17 at the County Schools’ Roy C Hill Education Center in San Bernardino. Each of this year’s recipients also will be honored by SchoolsFirst Federal Credit Union, which is a sponsor of the countywide Teachers of the Year program.

This year’s County Teachers of the Year are:

• Judy Baudoux, a special education teacher in Lucerne Valley, who works for the San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools;
• Randi Muehlen, a first-grade teacher at Elderberry Elementary School in the Ontario-Montclair School District;
• Jaclyn Parslow, a psychology and peer counseling teacher at Los Osos High School in the Chaffey Joint Union High School District.

“It’s an honor to recognize these outstanding educators who represent the very finest teachers in our county,” County Superintendent Ted Alejandre said. “They represent the more than 18,000 teachers in public schools in our county who are dedicated to providing the very best academic instruction to all of their students. We applaud their diligence and commitment to transforming lives through education.”

The three teachers were nominated by their individual districts and reviewed by a county panel that made the final selections. This year’s award recipients will compete in the California Teacher of the Year event, which will announce its recipients later this year.

Following is a biography of each of this year’s County Teacher of the Year recipients:

Baudoux has 20 years of experience teaching moderate to severe special education students for County Schools at Lucerne Valley middle and high schools. Baudoux said she works to establish a family environment in her classroom where her students experience a sense of belonging, along with having high expectations and offering encouragement. “A love for learning can only develop if a student feels safe enough to try, fail, try again and eventually succeed while being uplifted through the disappointments and spurred on through the successes,” Baudoux wrote about her teaching philosophy. Rich Frederick, the Desert/Mountain area director for Student Services with County Schools, said Baudoux is a model special education teacher. “(Judy) has used her experience and knowledge to effectively support all students with special needs in her classroom and the Desert/Mountain Region as a whole,” Frederick said.

As a first-grade teacher, Muehlen has taught at Elderberry Elementary in Ontario-Montclair for the past nine years, and overall, she has 12 years of experience teaching in the classroom. She said she not only wants to see development and growth for her students academically, but also for them emotionally and socially. “My goal has always been to play a vital role in the development of the whole child. My classroom is engrossed in independent thinking and collaboration,” Muehlen wrote in her nomination. The principal at Elderberry Elementary, Alicia Mateus, said Muehlen is not only an outstanding educator in the classroom, but also highly visible throughout the school community. “(Randi) is an asset to our school. … (She) is known throughout the district for her strong teaching and effective classroom management. … She is truly an Elderberry Champion,” Mateus said.

With five years in her current position and 16 years overall as a teacher, Parslow said she works to give her students relevant education they can use outside the classroom, while focusing on their individual needs to help them grow as people. “I consider myself to be a mental health advocate. I hold a unique position within my school as both an (Advanced Placement) psychology and peer counseling teacher,” Parslow wrote in her nomination. One of Parslow’s former students, Kaiya Sanabria, said Parslow fills a variety of roles and responsibilities in working with her students. “Mrs. Parslow is formally Mom, Teacher, Advisor, Mentor and Department Chair. Informally, she is an innovator, a luminary leader and (has) left a lifelong impression on myself and other students and staff. … Any campus would be lucky to have her, and I’m glad she’s getting the appreciation of this nomination,” Sanabria said.