Following Tuesday\u2019s announcement, Haverford Superintendent Matthew C. Hayes said Smith \u201cexemplifies excellence in teaching.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHis passion for public education is palpable and his enthusiasm inspires everyone around him,\u201d Smith said Wednesday in a press release. \u201cThrough his unwavering commitment to his students and his forward-thinking instructional practices, he inspires learning at the highest level. His influence extends far beyond his classroom, serving as a model for colleagues across our district.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
Smith and the four other finalists are expected to soon travel to Washington, D.C., for an interview with the selection committee. The Council of Chief State School Officers will announce the winner in the spring.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cI am honored to join this incredible group of finalists as Pennsylvania\u2019s representative for the 2026 National Teacher of the Year award, \u201d Smith said in a statement. \u201cI am deeply grateful to my family, friends, students\u2014past and present\u2014administrators, mentors, and the Haverford Township community for their unwavering support.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following Tuesday\u2019s announcement, Haverford Superintendent Matthew C. Hayes said Smith \u201cexemplifies excellence in teaching.\u201d \u201cHis passion for public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99956,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[48763,28,223,30,29,31057],"class_list":["post-99955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pennsylvania","tag-haverford-township","tag-pennsylvania","tag-pennsylvania-education","tag-pennsylvania-headlines","tag-pennsylvania-news","tag-teacher-of-the-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}