Mountain Brook Schools has named the Performance Award Winners for the 2025-26 school year. Performance Award Winners (at each local school) as well as the Ann Pritchard Award, Margaret Spencer Ragland Award, Promise of Excellence Award, and Jerome Lewis Excellence Award recognize teachers and staff members for their professional prowess.

Paul Hnizdil is this year’s recipient of the Ann Pritchard Award for Teaching Excellence. The award honors the memory of longtime Mountain Brook Board of Education member Ann Pritchard and represents the highest level of recognition in the MBS Professional Incentives Program. Hnizdil, a 9th grade history teacher at Mountain Brook Junior High, has worked in Mountain Brook Schools for 24 years.

Sammye Davis is this year’s recipient of the Margaret Spencer Ragland Award. The award recognizes a professional staff member for superior contributions above and beyond the call of duty and is sponsored by the Mountain Brook City Schools Foundation. The award was established in memory of Margaret Spencer Ragland, a member of the MBHS Class of 1980. Davis is the literacy coach at Brookwood Forest and has been at BWF for 19 years.

Gracee Mae Carroll is this year’s recipient of the Promise of Excellence Award. The award honors an educator with five or fewer years of teaching experience and is sponsored by former Brookwood Forest Elementary teacher Diane Waud and her family. Carroll has taught at Crestline Elementary for two years.
 

Paula Tschida is the winner of the Jerome Lewis Excellence Award. This award recognizes the most outstanding classified nominee as determined by the Performance Awards Committee. This award honors the memory of Jerome Lewis, a Crestline Elementary custodian, who embodied the values of Mountain Brook employees. His love for the students and the community was unparalleled and demonstrated in everything he did. This is the highest level of recognition given by the Professional Incentives Program for support employees. Tschida serves as a custodian at Mountain Brook Junior High and has been there for eight years.

Another well-deserved congratulations to the following individuals who have been named Performance Award winners for the 2025-2026 school year:
 

Beverly Adams (BWF)

Rachel Lazzaroni (CBS)

Abby Bontrager (CBS)

Miriam Sokol (CBS) 

Kathryn Hill (CES)

Mica Nichols (MBE)

Lindsey Haynes (MBE)

Kate Adams (JH)

Betsy Keller (JH)

Mattie Gardner (HS)

David Mandt (HS)

Release Days:

Jamie Jones (MBE)

Sarah Leffel (BWF)