Teachers of the Year from Godley ISD were among Fort Worth-area educators honored at a special awards banquet hosted by the Region 11 Education Service Center on August 5, 2025, at the Bowden Events Center in Keller.

Lindsay Simmons, who is the Secondary Teacher of the Year, teaches entrepreneurship at Godley High School while Lacey Long, the Elementary Teacher of the Year, is a third-grade teacher at Legacy Elementary School.

Attending the banquet with the teachers were Superintendent Dr. Rich Dear, GHS principal Kurtis Flood and Legacy principal Tom Frazier.

The regional banquet recognizes all of the teachers of the year from school districts in the north central Texas region. The Teacher of the Year Program, sponsored by the Texas Association of School Administrators, allows districts to submit one elementary and one secondary candidate to compete at the regional and state levels. Ninety teachers, representing 46 school districts in Region 11, participated in this year’s competition. 

District winners who competed for the regional award were required to submit their resumes describing their educational history and professional development.  In addition, they were asked to write their own professional biography as well as five lengthy essays detailing:

• a defining lesson they have developed,
• a special project or initiative they have participated in that creates school culture,
• an example of how they connect students to the community,
• how they have grown as a leader and learner as a result of being an advocate, and
• their message/platform should they be selected as the National Teacher of the Year.

Pictured, left to right, are Frazier, Long, Dear, Simmons and Flood.