The Clarke County School District today announced its three finalists for 2024-25 Teacher of the Year – Chris Batson of Clarke Middle School, Tymisha Creightney of Burney-Harris-Lyons Middle School, and Barbara Gaertig of Hilsman Middle School. 

The finalists were chosen from a field of 22 school-level teachers of the year whose applications were evaluated and scored by a district committee. The winner, along with the district Support Professional of the Year, will be announced on Oct. 24 at the district’s Teacher/Support Professional of the Year awards banquet. The winning teacher will then go on to compete at the state level. 

Mr. Batson teaches sixth-grade social studies and has spent his entire 12-plus years in education to date at Clarke Middle. He is also the school’s Athletic Director, girls’ soccer coach, serves on the School Improvement Leadership Team, and is a founding member of the school’s Restorative Culture Leadership Team. 

Mr. Batson holds a bachelor’s degree in Middle Grades Education (English and Social Studies) and a master’s in Secondary Social Studies Education, both from the University of Georgia. 

After initially working in radio broadcasting, Ms. Creightney began her career in education and with CCSD in 2017 as a behavior interventionist at Winterville Elementary School before moving over to BHL Middle in 2018. She currently is an eighth-grade special education teacher in English Language Arts and science.

Ms. Creightney holds a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Georgia State University and a master’s in Media from Georgia Southern University. 

A native of Poland, Ms. Gaertig began her teaching career in Warsaw before moving to the United States and Georgia and has been an educator with CCSD for the past 26 years. She taught special education at Barnett Shoals, Fowler Drive, and Gaines elementary schools prior to moving to Hilsman Middle 10 years ago. She now teaches student leadership classes at Hilsman, and — in the last three years since it was first piloted — the program has grown from serving 16 seventh-graders to more than 200 students in grades 6-8 today. In addition, Ms. Gaertig co-founded and became lead advisor for the state award-winning Hilsman Student Council in 2019 and is responsible for three separate student peer-to-peer mentorship programs for sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-graders.

Ms. Gaertig holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Education from the University of Warsaw in Poland and earned her teaching certification in the U.S. from the University of Georgia. 

“We had 22 exceptional school-level Teacher of the Year candidates to consider this year who represent the very best of the best and are great ambassadors of our core mission to empower all students to reach their full potential,” said CCSD Superintendent Dr. Robbie Hooker. “Thank you to this year’s evaluation committee, which had the difficult and unenviable task of narrowing the field down to these three deserving finalists. We look forward to celebrating all of our school winners and announcing the district winner later this month.”