FORT SMITH -- A teacher in the Fort Smith School District has been named the state's top educator.
As the 2021 Arkansas Teacher of the Year, Susanna Post on July 1 will begin a year of traveling the state as a representative for teachers and a nonvoting member of the Arkansas Board of Education. She also received a $14,000 award sponsored by the Walton Family Foundation on Oct. 19, as well as eligibility for the National Teacher of the Year competition.
Post, a math and business technology teacher for grades 9-12 at Belle Point Alternative Center, learned she had won the honor during an assembly at the school.
She is the first Fort Smith teacher to be named Arkansas Teacher of the Year since Ray Baker, who taught U.S. history at Southside High School, won in 1984, according to the Arkansas Division of Elementary and Secondary Education's website. A news release from the division said Post was recognized for "her multi-dimensional approach to reach each and every student."
Post said such an honor does not happen in isolation, recognizing the support of administrators, her fellow teachers and the Fort Smith School District.
"I am very passionate about the empathy gap," Post said. "I have learned as much from my students as they have learned from me, and a lot of that has been centered around empathy and understanding them and what they need to learn, so I am incredibly excited to get to share that with ... the whole state of Arkansas, I guess."
Post began teaching in July 2002 at Wake County Public Schools in Raleigh, N.C., the news release states. A family move temporarily put this career path on hold, with Post going on to work as a petroleum analyst and senior engineering technician at multiple oil and gas companies in Dallas and Fort Worth, as well as in Fort Smith. She returned to teaching in 2016, having taught at Belle Point Alternative Center since August of that year.
At Belle Point, Post has co-taught with a senior high school special education teacher, initiated the school's first coding club, coordinated with district curriculum leaders to create an ACT prep program, facilitated a literacy intervention group and served on the district's secondary math curriculum development team, according to the Division of Elementary and Secondary Education.
"She leads the school's Culture Project Week, which includes project-based activities that improve school culture by strengthening relationships between students, teachers, and the community."
Arkansas Education Secretary Johnny Key said Post attributes her business experience for much of her classroom success with a focus on problem- and project-based learning. Her platform for her time as Teacher of the Year will be "closing the empathy gap."
"She believes that educators must be intentional in fostering empathy because a lack of empathy, or a gap in empathy, might be the invisible thief of student achievement," Key said.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson said in a prerecorded video that Post's students "are all the better" thanks to Post's career in the business world.
"Her experience increases the value of all she brings to the classroom through her innovative projects and lessons," Hutchinson said. "Thank you, Susanna Post, for your dedication and service to your students."
Fort Smith Mayor George McGill proclaimed Oct. 19 as Susanna Post Day in the city.
Post has a bachelor's of science degree in applied mathematics, with a minor in computer science, from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, a master's in teaching from the University of Central Arkansas at Conway, and an education master's in rural and urban school leadership from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
She was previously selected for the Class of 2020 Aspiring Leaders Institute and named the 2020 Fort Smith Teacher of the Year.