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By JOYANNA LOVE/ Senior Staff Writer

The International Technology and Engineering Educators Association has named local educator Jay LeCroy the 2020 Teacher of Excellence for Alabama in the high school division.

LeCroy, an instructor for the STEM Academy at LeCroy Career Technical Center, was nominated for the recognition by the state directors for ITEEA.

“It’s the highest honor that a STEM teacher could win at this level,” LeCroy said. “… To me it was an honor because of not just me but the overall program that we have built in Chilton County.”

He said it was especially an honor because often these kind of awards go to educators in larger, metropolitan school systems.

“It took a lot to get the attention of some of these bigger areas with what we are doing down here, all the teachers,” LeCroy said.

Awards were set to be presented in March during the ITEEA annual conference. However, COVID-19 social distancing requirements cut the conference short. Winners were given their plaques before leaving but without the usual presentation.

“The Teacher Excellence Awards program was established to identify outstanding technology and engineering teachers who will serve as models for their colleagues and who could form a leadership core to affect change in the field,” according to the organization’s website.

Despite the conference being cut short, LeCroy said he was still able to meet people in the organization.

“These are industry engineers from around the nation,” LeCroy said.

The connections led to LeCroy and fellow STEM Academy instructor Jason Sosa working on ventilator attachments to help combat COVID-19 coronavirus with the department’s 3D printer.