Kanawha education board honors top education staff

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Three Kanawha County Schools employees were honored by the Board of Education last week as the top workers in the school system.

Stephanie Toliver, Thomas Grant and Amanda Mays received awards honoring them as personnel, teacher and principal of the 2019-2020 academic year. Superintendent Tom Williams noted the recipients should have received the awards in the spring, but the plan was changed because of the coronavirus.

Toliver, an aide at Nitro Elementary School, is an assistant in special education classrooms and a member of the school’s Local School Improvement Council. She was also one of the top finalists for the West Virginia School Service Personnel of the Year.

Grant is the culinary instructor at Carver Career and Technical Center. He joined Carver Career and Technical Center in 2005 and started the culinary arts program. He also was recognized as the state’s leading CTE educator for the last school year.

Amanda Mays serves as principal of Edgewood Elementary School, where she has been working for three years. Mays previously worked as a principal at Belle Elementary School for six years.

Mays began her education career in 2002 as a teacher and librarian at Elk Elementary Center.