Kim Gritz was selected as the Hennessey Public Schools’ 2024-25 Teacher of the Year by school staff last week.

Gritz was initially voted the Hennessey High School Teacher of the Year, making her eligible for the district honor.

Other teachers of the year chosen were Chelli (Blazer) Rapp from the middle school and Flo Conway, representing both the elementary school and the Early Childhood Center.

All of those teachers will be recognized in an upcoming meeting of the Hennessey Board of Education.

District/High School Winner

Gritz teaches a variety of science courses and most recently added a forensic science class to her schedule.

“She is always looking for new ways to engage and challenge her students,” wrote HHS Principal Joshua Faulkner.

She was first hired in Hennessey as a middle school science teacher in 2017. Back then she was already “an OERB core science and petroleum active certified teacher” and had taught alternate education (200915) and life science (2008-15) at Blackwell High School.

She was also the robotics coach and Student Council advisor at Blackwell.

She also taught basic science at Northern Oklahoma College (201415) and served as an after-school STEM enrichment class instructor for kindergarten-sixth grade students and was a life science instructor at Crescent High School.

During her eight years in Hennessey, Gritz has taught STEAM, fifth grade science, biology, biology 2, AP biology, anatomy and physiology, chemistry, physics and computer science.

As a master teacher for the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board, she travels the state teaching other classroom teachers how to implement OERB’s curriculum into their programs.

“I was awarded an INBRE grant from Redlands three years in a row,” she said, “and this year we were awarded a $5,000 Funding the Future grant from Continental Resources in Oklahoma City for our forensic classroom projects.”

Her name on grant applications is also well-known to Hennessey Educational School Foundation members who have supported many of her projects.

Gritz has also worked with Enel Green Power’s Red Dirt Wind Farm east of Hennessey.

“My class was chosen to work with National Geographic on a documentary (that has since aired) about wind energy that was filmed, in part, in our classroom,” she said.

Gritz told the KT&FP she’d also written applications for grants and received more than $37,000 for student projects.

“That money has been used to create and run our outdoor classroom, fund our forensic lab, and create many activities that our students might not have been able to experience without many generous donors,” she said.

Middle School Teacher of the Year

Chelli (Blazer) Rapp teaches fifth, sixth and seventh grade math at HMS.

“She instructs with high levels of effectiveness and puts in extra time tutoring before and after school,” wrote HMS Principal Ricardo Tarango.

She has taught school for 25 years with 17 of those years at Hennessey.

Rapp is a1992 HHS graduate and an OSU grad. She was hired at Hennessey in January 2008 to teach fifth and sixth grade math and had previously taught at Davis Elementary School in Irving, Texas, for eight years.

Elementary and ECC School Winning Teacher Site teacher of the year for both the elementary and Early Childhood Center are both the same person: Flo Conway, special education director and Section 504 coordinator.

She was hired as a special education and special reading teacher in 1983.

Conway has taught for 46 years with 42 years of those being in the Hennessey school district.

She “always goes out of her way to help all students and teachers. She brings a wealth of knowledge to the special education team and to the Hennessey Public School District,” agreed Principal Barry Crosswhite (elementary) and Principal Stacey Mack (early childhood center).

Conway was hired in 2008 to teach learning disabilities and was later named director of special services. That job is now titled special education director and section 504 coordinator (the coordinator evaluates and determines a student’s eligibility for the program).