Kane County Reporter

The Batavia city council recently honored a local teacher who has been named as a finalist in the state's Teacher of the Year award. 

During the April 3 Batavia city council meeting, officials took a moment to recognize a local high school teacher who was recently honored by the Illinois School Board of Education. Council member Leah Leman read a proclamation honoring Batavia High School teacher Amber Jirsa, who had been named North Suburbs Regional Teacher of the Year by the ISBE. This award comes from the state’s annual Those Who Excel award program, which has run since 1970. This year, the state recognized 490 individuals across the state for their efforts in education, and Jirsa was among 13 finalists for State Teacher of the Year, the top award.

Jirsa is an English teacher at the high school, and her application to the ISBE listed her many achievements and credentials. Jirsa is an advocate and constant supporter of DEI initiatives and goals in her district, encouraging coworkers and fellow advocates to achieve their goals and push the boundaries. She has a contagious enthusiasm for education and equity, never giving up on her students or letting them fall away from their academics. Former students credit her with instilling a love of reading long after they had decided they would never enjoy English class.

Batavia Mayor Jeffery Schielke presented Jirsa with a certificate of recognition from the city council and spoke about the success and dedication of the local school district. Schielke recalled several prominent American figures who were students at Batavia high school, including the mother of Buzz Aldrin, a starting quarterback for the 1982 Superbowl, and Rodney Ross, the curator of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. He thanked Jirsa for continuing the legacy of excellence and for her work in inspiring a generation of students who might bring more fame back to their community someday.

"Batavia High School has this great history of all these people who have gone far beyond what anybody else in the region has done as far as really making a name for Batavia High School with the people that this high school has presented going," Schielke said at the meeting. "The reason I shared this was going way back into the old days when I'm just excited to hear I'm talking to students at the high school who have you as a teacher and all of the well-wishes and all the great things that are being said about you and your teaching skills and your ability to communicate with your students, I think you've made maybe another couple big-time national winner for us at some point in time in the future. Thank you for that legacy that you are really carrying forward in Batavia. Couldn't be prouder of you at the moment for all you've done already and look for great things just to appear in your record as some of your students go forward. So you really have made a real positive impact on a lot of kids already."