Heights Elementary – 2005 Winner
Deborah Meylan has been a teacher for 13 years. She currently teaches at Heights Elementary in the Pittsburg Unified School District. Throughout the school year, Ms. Meylan demonstrates to her children that she cares about them. She attends baseball games, first communions, and birthday parties. She organized a Christmas gift and food program for needy families in her school that started with one family and now provides 175 wrapped gifts to impoverished students at the school – sometimes including a Christmas tree. She has made medical and dental appointments for students and family members and provided them with transportation to get necessary treatment. When the mother of one of her students died, Ms. Meylan temporarily took in all three children in the family while the father got the family back on its feet. On another occasion, she made a connection with a student from a broken home who wasn’t even in her class, welcomed that student into her home, took her on vacations, paid for her high school graduation announcements, helped her apply to college and paid the application fees as well.