Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here
Otherwise, follow the link below to join.
To Our Valued Readers –
Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.
For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.
Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.
Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.
Need to set up your free e-Newspaper all-access account? click here.
Non-subscribers
Click here to see your options for becoming a subscriber.
Register to comment
Click here create a free account for posting comments.
Note that free accounts do not include access to premium content on this site.
I am anchor
EDUCATION
Tolleson educator a finalist for Arizona Teacher of the Year
Awards ceremony to take place Oct. 14 in Phoenix
(Photo provided by Urias Communications)
Efrain Casillas, a teacher for 22 years who works with both the Tolleson Elementary School District and Nadaburg Unified School District, is a finalist for Arizona Teacher of the Year.
Posted
IF YOU GO
What: Arizona Teacher of the Year Awards ceremony
When: Saturday, Oct. 14
Where: Madison Center for the Arts, 5601 N. 16th St., Phoenix
Madison Center for the Arts 5601 N. 16th St. Phoenix, AZ
View larger map
Special to Independent Newsmedia
A Tolleson teacher is among five finalists in contention for the Arizona Educational Foundation 2024 Arizona Teacher of the Year Award.
Efrain Casillas is a music teacher at Porfirio H. Gonzales Elementary School, 9401 W. Garfield St., in Tolleson, and at Desert Oasis Elementary, 17161 W. Bajada Road, in Surprise. Serving both the Tolleson Elementary School District and Nadaburg Unified School District in Wittmann, Casillas has been a teacher for 22 years.
Desert Financial Credit Union is the presenting sponsor of this year’s Teacher of the Year Awards ceremony. The educator ultimately selected as Arizona Teacher of the Year becomes the state’s candidate for National Teacher of the Year.
Andrea Barallardos with Douglas High School; Marian Johnson with the Amphitheater School District; Kathleen Malkhassian with the Flagstaff Unified School District; and Rebecca Oravec with the Sahuarita Unified School District, are the other finalists.
The five finalists, known as “Ambassadors for Excellence,” are in the running for Arizona Teacher of the Year, which will be announced during the Arizona Teacher of the Year Awards ceremony on Saturday, Oct. 14. The event takes place at the Madison Center for the Arts, 5601 N. 16th St., in Phoenix.
