MURFREESBORO, Tennessee

The Professional Educators of Tennessee distributed their annual awards at their Leader U Conference at MTSU on June 7th. Melany McDermott from Metro Nashville Public Schools was named the Professional Educators of Tennessee Teacher of the Year. Michael Chai from Cleveland City Schools received the Administrator of the Year award while Jeff Luttrell of Wilson County Schools was awarded Superintendent of the Year. Others acknowledged were Giles County’s Michael Gonzales, Advocate of the Year, and Representative Mark White from District 83 (which includes Germantown, Bartlett, Cordova, and portions of East Memphis) was named Friend of the Educator.

Teacher of the Year

Metro Nashville Public Schools Melany McDermott was named the Professional Educators of Tennessee Teacher of the Year.

Melany McDermott is from East Tennessee where she grew up loving school in the Knoxville area. She attended Lipscomb University where she studied education and Spanish. She taught in Georgia and Texas before returning to Tennessee where she started an elementary foreign language program for Williamson County Schools. When the Spanish program at her school was discontinued, she briefly moved into a classroom position before starting a new career path in Metro Nashville Public Schools as an EL teacher.  Currently, Melany assists high school seniors from around the globe who need to finish a few credits to receive their diplomas.

Melany McDermott has been a teacher for 29 years and a member of the Professional Educators of Tennessee for 11 years.

Looking back over her career, Melany is appreciative of her relationships with her students and fellow teachers. She is honored to represent Metro-Nashville teachers.

Principal of the Year

Michael Chai has been named Professional Educators of Tennessee Principal of the Year.

He is the principal at Arnold Memorial Elementary School in Cleveland, Tennessee. He just completed his 10th year as the principal at Arnold. He started working in Cleveland City Schools in 1995 as a staff member of the Extended School Program. After graduating from Lee University, he worked as an Instructional Assistant at Mayfield Elementary for two years. In 2003, He graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga with a master’s degree in School Counseling. He worked at Cleveland Middle School in the counseling department for four years and then two additional years as the leader of Student Services at Cleveland Middle School. During that time, he earned his Educational Specialist degree from Tennessee Technological University. He served in Assistant Principal roles at Blythe-Bower and Cleveland High School before coming to Arnold in 2012. He is proud to be the principal at Arnold with their wonderfully diverse building full of teachers that love to teach and love their students even more.

Superintendent of the Year

Professional Educators of Tennessee Superintendent of the Year goes to Jeff Luttrell. Mr. Luttrell is the superintendent of Wilson County Schools.  He has been in education for 28 + years where he served as a teacher, coach, principal, and supervisor for Human Resources.

When Jeff Luttrell was principal at Watertown High School, the school received numerous scholastic honors and state awards. Through his leadership, Watertown High School saw significant increases in graduation rates and ACT scores. Mr. Luttrell was named 2019 Middle Tennessee Principal of the Year by the Tennessee Association of Secondary Principals. Mr. Luttrell holds multiple higher education degrees and certifications.

Despite the setbacks from the pandemic and the loss of two schools to the March 2020 tornadoes, seven of Wilson County schools received Reward School status for the 2021-22 school year, Wilson County Schools continued to exceed the State average in graduation rate, college-going rate and ACT score for 2021-2022 school year.

Advocate of the Year

Michael Gonzales was named Advocate of the Year for the Professional Educators of Tennessee. Dr. Gonzales is an experienced administrator with a diverse public education background in administration and supervision. Dr. Gonzales’s 20-year career includes serving as school board chairman, assistant director of schools, transportation supervisor, facilities supervisor, testing supervisor, adjunct professor of educational leadership, principal, assistant principal, and teacher. His current role is the lead teacher at the Giles County Alternative Learning Program.

As an advocate for teachers, Dr. Gonzales seeks to educate teachers on the facts and the impact of the legislation that directly impacts them.

Friend of the Educator

Representative Mark White was elected to serve District 83 in the Tennessee House of Representatives in 2010 and is currently serving his sixth term in the Tennessee General Assembly.

Rep. White currently serves as Chairman of the House Education Committee.  He has a passion for education. He voted to increase K-12 school funding by over $1.5 billion in eight years, supported multiple teachers’ pay raises, and backed more vocational and technical training opportunities for high school students so they learn job-ready skills.  In addition, he has supported $270 million to improve school security and worked to address early childhood literacy in grades K-3. He is a former teacher and school principal.