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Piqua Teacher wins $100,000 award of excellence

Piqua teacher Jeffrey Bertke accepting his award
Dan Trittschuh
/
WYSO
Piqua teacher Jeffrey Bertke accepting his award

Educators across the country applied for this year’s Harbor Freight Tools for Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence. Among the three winners of the $100,000 award is Piqua trade educator Jeff Bertke.

Bertke is an electrical trades instructor at the upper valley career center in piqua. He says he hopes the award will draw attention to the incredible programs and teachers at his school.

“We're different from any other school- -Because they've got that attention they've got these people that care about them and want them to succeed and that are willing to go to whatever lengths we need to help those kids reach those goals,” said Bertke.

Last year, despite COVID, almost all of Bertke’s seniors qualified for job programs or apprenticeships. Bertke says he’s currently in conversation with the Ohio state ethics board about if he’s allowed to accept his part of the prize money. If not, the full $100,00 award will go to his school.

Shay Frank was born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. Before working at WYSO, Shay worked as the Arts Writer for the Blade Newspaper in Toledo, Ohio. In addition to working at the paper, she worked as a freelancer for WYSO for three years and served as the vice president of the Toledo News Guild. Now located back in the Dayton area, Shay is thrilled to be working with the team at WYSO and reporting for her hometown community.