It just adds up

Mike Sciacca

Carol Brouhle’s answering machine message at school says that if she

can’t get to the phone, she’s busy trying to “make mathematics as easy as

pie for students.”

Her clever pun is evidence of a personality that has managed to do

just that for many students. That combined with her teaching fundamentals

and her dedication to the job have earned Brouhle one of her profession’s

top honors. She is one of five teachers who have been named as

California’s Teachers of the Year.

Brouhle has taught mathematics for the past six years at Westminster

High of the Huntington Union High School District. Prior to that she

taught for nine years at Ocean View High, but left Ocean View when the

opportunity to work at Westminster’s magnet program, Math Educational

Resources Integrated with Technology and Science, or MERITS, presented

itself.

Overall, the Fountain Valley resident has been teaching for 24 years.

“I just love the profession,” Brouhle said. “It is unbelievable to be

honored like this. There are so many teachers in the state who do so many

fantastic things inside and outside the classroom. I am very fortunate to

receive such an honor.”

Nominations for California Teachers of the Year are submitted by

county offices of education, as well as some private schools, following

local competition. The process involved reviews at the district and

county levels before reaching the state level, Brouhle said.

Once a candidate reaches the state level, nominations are reviewed by

a committee representing a broad cross-section of the state.

Although Brouhle, whose husband Bob teaches mathematics at Marina

High, is overwhelmed with the honor, she is quick to credit her fellow

teachers and administrators at Westminster for helping her attain this

award.

“I have such a wonderful support system at Westminster,” she said.

“There’s no way that it would be possible for me to receive this [honor]

without this staff at Westminster High. They are amazing.”

Brouhle says that her love of teaching traces back to her family’s

support for education. Childhood experiences, she said, convinced her

that it is possible to educate children of varying backgrounds and

develop each individual to their fullest potential.

“For me, mathematics really is a language,” Brouhle said. “It gives me

order and I see beauty in things. I try to convey that to my students.”

Principal George Green said that Westminster High has a “tradition in

excellence” when it comes to teaching and noted that several Westminster

teachers previously had been teacher of the year candidates. Brouhle is

the first, he said, from the school to earn the state honor.

“She is a star,” Green said of Brouhle. “Carol personifies all the

positive and constructive efforts a teacher has for a student, students

of all ability levels. She’s humble and the bottom line is that she makes

all her students successful.”

One of Brouhle’s accomplishments has been to implement the magnet

program for students interested in careers in math, science and

technology. She said that students spend their first two years in an

intensive math, science and techonology-based curriculum, then spend

their final two years on mentoring and volunteer activities in the

community.

Brouhle participates on several local, regional and state committees,

the California Math Council and the National Council of Teachers of

Mathematics, are among them. In 1999 she was named a Wal-Mart Teacher of

the Year.

Word of her accomplishment has spread across the Westminster campus,

Green said. Her feat also was announced on the school’s marquee.