Honoring Gloria Voutos, Texas 2005 Elementary Teacher of the Year

HONORING GLORIA VOUTOS, TEXAS 2005 ELEMENTARY TEACHER OF THE YEAR-HON. PETE SESSIONS (Extensions of Remarks - October 11, 2004)

Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. Speaker, I join my fellow Lone Star State colleagues in congratulating Gloria Voutos of the Richardson Independent School District's (RISD) Spring Valley Elementary School. I am proud to represent Spring Valley Elementary School in the 32nd Congressional District of Texas.

Gloria Voutos was just recently named the Texas Elementary Teacher of the Year for 2005 by the Texas Education Agency. This award is a high distinction for Gloria, as more than 228,000 teachers in Texas are eligible to be chosen for this honor.

Gloria is a proud veteran of the U.S. Air Force, and after serving her country in uniform, she decided to further serve her local community by becoming a teacher. She completed her teacher preparation program at Southern Methodist University that I am also proud to represent. She has pursued a career of being a bilingual instructional specialist, and constantly wins high praise from her colleagues and students.

This is the second consecutive year that the RISD has produced a teacher that has been named a finalist for this year, and I am very delighted that this year Richardson was able to be the home for the winner. I wish Gloria all the best for her continued teaching excellence with the children of the Richardson ISD.