CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Teacher of the Year and Service Personnel of the Year winners for 2025 were announced Tuesday at a ceremony held at the Cultural Center in Charleston.
Governor Jim Justice was the one who announced the awards and Putnam County Music Educator Seth Skiles was given the 2025 Teacher of the Year award. Skiles is a six-year music educator and currently works at Rock Branch Elementary School.
Skiles expressed his gratitude to be in the room with excellent employees of the West Virginia school system and said he was blessed to be given this award.
“I am just so humbled to have been given this award to represent our state and I will do my level best this new year taking on this role to advocate for all of our teachers and all of our subject areas,” Skiles said.
Skiles gave some advice for future teachers wanting to inspire and be an amazing teacher. He says that it all starts with the connections you make with your students.
“It’s all about the student-teacher connection, it’s all about the relationship. Doesn’t matter what you teach you have to have a connection with students. And you have to relate to them on their level and you have to be in their corner,” Skiles said.
Skiles also stated that he believes in his students because he had an experience with teacher who told him that he believed in him.
The 2025 Service Personnel of the Year award was presented to Marshall County School Librarian Nicole McCulley. McCulley is a school librarian at Center McMechan Elementary and Glen Dale Elementary schools.
McCulley expressed that this award means that she can spread kindness not only to the children she teaches but also to the rest of West Virginia.
“This award means so much to me because it was an award that was provided to me by my peers recognizing the little extra things that I do,” McCulley said. “The kindness that I like to spread around my children each and every day and that I have the opportunity to spread that kindness around the state.”
McCulley says her advice to anyone trying to get into service is to follow your heart and remember why you do the things you do and be the person that spread kindness.
“You always have to go above and beyond because not every kid goes home to a loving home, so you have to provide that love and security at school so they have that in their life and they can see the kindness even if they don’t see it at home,” McCulley said.
McCulley also expressed how grateful she is that she is able to boost the literacy through library the ways that she does.