Excellence in Public Service Award

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2010 Award!

The Excellence in Public Service Awards Program honors up to three public service employees each year whose work performance and community activities transcend the ordinary. The program, sponsored by the DeVore Foundation, is in its 22nd year.

Each award winner is rewarded with a $2500 check, a reception in their honor and the enduring thanks of the community. Through this program the City of Wichita, Sedgwick County and the Wichita Public Schools also acknowledge the contributions of thousands of other dedicated public servants who, day after day, perform the tasks that make our community a great place to live and work.

The award winners are selected from among thousands of eligible workers and have represented all ranks and levels of public service. Each winner demonstrates some combination of the following attributes essential to excellent public service:

• Exemplary performance that has contributed to the public interest,
• Innovative problem-solving skills that have improved service delivery,
• Adherence to high ethical standards in carrying out job responsibilities, and
• A record of community involvement through participation in civic organizations.

Completed nomination forms for the 2010 award program will be accepted until 5 p.m. on March 10. Nominations submitted on behalf of Wichita Public Schools employees should be submitted to the district's Division of Marketing and Communications, 201 N. Water, Wichita, KS 67202. Forms can also be faxed to 973-4612 or e-mailed to SKLinder@usd259.net.

Beth McDonald, science teacher at Colvin Elementary School was surprised in her classroom on April 21 when a team announced that she was the district's 2009 Excellence in Public Service Award recipient. 

Interim Superintendent Martin Libhart, left, presents Beth McDonald with an enlarged copy of the $2,500 check she receives as the recipient of the 2009 Excellence in Public Service Award.

McDonald is a 22-year veteran educator with the Wichita Public Schools and currently teaches science at Colvin Elementary School.

Her interest in science and passion for environmentalism led her to organize a school-wide recycling program which she maintains with the help of 5^th-grade students who weekly collect all of the recycling in the school.

In a building of nearly 100 employees and 900 students, that’s a lot of recycled paper diverted from the community’s trash system.

The example McDonald sets is slowly affecting the behavior of roughly 1,000 people every school year as she gets out the message that we need to recycle and reuse. 

McDonald is a leader in her school and serves on the leadership team and the behavior intervention committee. She is a longstanding member of the National Science Teachers of America and a 5-year member of the Kansas Association of Teachers of Science. She has presented workshops at both organizations’ conventions.

McDonald’s extensive community service includes her active membership with University Friends Church, where she serves on the Leadership Council and the Clearness Committee. Through those groups she helps to support the pastors in the running of the church, screen possible missionary candidates and set up fund-raising efforts to support those candidates in their mission endeavors. 

McDonald makes regular visits to the sick and shut-ins of her faith family and has volunteered as a Vacation Bible School helper.With her husband David of 29 years, McDonald has raised two sons, Ryan and Kevin. When her sons were younger, she served as a Cub Scout Den leader with the Quivira Council and for the past 23 years McDonald has been a faithful blood donor, giving blood three times a year. 

 Prior USD 259 recipients of the Excellence in Public Service Award include: