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For School-Related Employee of the Year, it begins with love of students

 
Moton Elementary computer lab manager Jacqueline Mays is “the best teacher in the universe” according to one student.
Moton Elementary computer lab manager Jacqueline Mays is “the best teacher in the universe” according to one student.
Published Jan. 28, 2016

BROOKSVILLE — Jacqueline Mays goes into her classroom every day bursting with love for her students.

"I love the students. I love each and every one of them as if they were my own," the Moton Elementary School computer lab manager said.

Perhaps this is part of what the selection committee saw when it named her the Hernando School District 2016 School-Related Employee of the Year.

Mays, 53, is in her third year at Moton and seventh in the district, and she is especially pleased to be at Moton.

"I plan on retiring from Moton," she said.

Her work in the computer lab includes maintaining the program, assisting students one on one and teaching fourth- and fifth-graders Instructional Certification Technology, an enrichment program that includes word processing, word processing technology and document creation and printing.

She stays when the school day ends to work in the district's STEAM program, which focuses on science, technology, engineering, art and math. She said she also volunteers "for any of our school functions."

Mays' daughter attends Winding Waters K-8 School, and Mays volunteers there, too, in the music program. On top of that, she works part time at Payless ShoeSource.

"I will be working at the store, and my students come in (and) they give me hugs," she said.

During her spare time, Mays likes doing crafts.

"Mainly, I like making wreaths," she said.

She also paints and added, "I love to motorcycle ride."

Mays lives with her husband, Dave, whom she rides behind on a motorcycle; her son, Justin, 22; daughter, Miranda, 13; and niece, Ashley Pisapia, 25, who works in the clinic at Winding Waters K-8 and is studying to be a teacher.

Second-grader Maria Wise, 8, has her own ideas about how Mays was selected as School-Related Employee of the Year, although Maria views the lab manager more as an instructor.

"She (is) the best teacher in the universe," she said. "She helps people out and gets them really smart."

Said second-grader Iyana Williams, 8: "She takes her job serious, and she helps kids when they get logged out, and she helps them log back in. Mrs. Mays is the best computer teacher."

"The reason I think she's special," said second-grader Savion Smith, 7, "is when I come to specials (classes besides core subjects), she lets us do fun things."