COUNTYWIDE : 5 in O.C. Are Among Teachers of the Year

Five teachers from Orange County are among 41 from the region who will be honored as Teachers of the Year by Cal Poly Pomona.

The university’s School of Education will present the awards Friday to teachers from throughout Southern California. Of the five Orange County recipients, three are from the Santa Ana Unified School District.

“We are terribly pleased when other organizations take the time and trouble to honor teachers we’re proud of every day,” said Diane Thomas, a spokeswoman for the Santa Ana district.

The Santa Ana award winners are Allen L. Cudahy of Valley High School, Terri Emi Kato of Monroe Elementary School and Judy Sampson of Sierra Intermediate School. The other honorees are Robert Patterson of the Brea-Olinda Unified School District and Jeffrey O.H. Nelson of the Fullerton Joint Union High School District.

Sampson, who has been with the Santa Ana district for 19 years, was recently named a finalist in the state’s Teacher of the Year contest. She teaches language arts and English as a Second Language at Sierra and serves as the eighth-grade adviser.

Kato is a special education teacher for kindergarten- through second-grade at Monroe. She has been with the district for 12 years, the last six at Monroe.

Cudahy teaches English in Valley High’s academy program, which prepares students for college. Cudahy, who has been with the district for 33 years, was one of the district’s first mentor teachers.

Patterson is head of Brea-Olinda High School’s foreign language department and has taught Spanish there for 21 years. Nelson teaches biology at Sunny Hills High School, where he has been a teacher for about eight years.

The Cal Poly Pomona awards program was begun a year ago to acknowledge outstanding efforts by teachers. Presenting the awards this year will be Bob Suzuki, president of Cal Poly Pomona; Terry Coe, district manager for Southern California Edison; and Walter Kirwan, manager of external affairs for Arco.