Teacher of the Year Article

Brown is Named Marion County Middle High School Teacher of the Year

By Mollie Beth Johnson 

Ashlei Brown, a teacher of seventeen years, has recently been named Marion County Middle High School’s 2023 Teacher of the Year. Fellow teachers voted on who they believed deserved to be named this year’s teacher of the year. Superintendent Jamie Penoncello and Principal Derek Goodroe presented Mrs. Brown with her certificate and flowers. 

Brown explained why she wanted to become a teacher: "I felt like I wanted to be able to make a difference in someone's life." For the first two years of her career, Mrs. Brown taught at Tri-County middle school. In her third year, when Tri-County Middle and High School dispersed, Brown began teaching high school. She has been teaching at Marion County High School for fifteen years. In 2020, one of her students, Sophia Hasley, nominated Mrs. Brown for the WRBL/Kinetic Credit Union Golden Apple Award. She says her favorite thing about working at Marion County Middle High School is that it is family oriented.

After seventeen years of teaching, Mrs. Brown says the most stressful thing about her job is not when she is with her students. She explains that she worries about her students after they leave school. Her worry mainly gravitates toward the kids with family or friend issues and how they deal with them. 

When Brown is teaching, she always tries to find something positive about each student and motivates them to do their best. She strives to make each student feel important because "everyone has a story." This is Brown's motto. She also states, "you can't control what people do to you, but you can control how you respond.” This is some advice that Mrs. Brown gives to her students.

Mrs. Ashlei Brown is married to Jason Brown, and they have two kids, Jake (9th Grade) and Katie (7th Grade). Brown enjoys spending time with her family and friends in her free time. To relax, she works in her yard and travels. 

On behalf of Marion County Schools and the R. E. D. News Team, Congratulations, Mrs. Brown, on this fantastic honor!