Red Cross teacher Scott Johnson wins 2025 elementary teacher of the year

By MICHAEL CRIMMINS
Glasgow News 1

In the Kentucky capitol rotunda lieutenant governor Jacqueline Coleman announced Red Cross Elementary School teacher Scott Johnson as the winner in the elementary division of the 2025 Kentucky Teacher Achievement Awards, effectively naming him as 2025 Kentucky Elementary Teacher of the Year.

“[Johnson] is known for encouraging their students to live out their dreams and to take risks,” Coleman said. “[He] has provided opportunities for students to give back to the community through their STEAM designs and projects [and he has] put together at home experiments kits during COVID and delivered them to students homes so they could work on their projects together even though they weren’t in the same classroom.”

The announcement took place on Sept. 10 in the chair-lined rotunda and Johnson was joined by the other two elementary teachers who were winners of the Kentucky Teacher Achievement Award — Angela Hardin from Peace Academy and Sarah Wallace from Robert B. Turner Elementary.

With restrained emotions Johnson took to the podium.

“Holy smokes; I don’t have the appropriate words,” Johnson said. “Thank you to all of you. Thank you to the Kentucky Department of Education…I give my hearty thanks to all of you.”

Johnson said when he graduated from Lindsey Wilson College in 1998 he had “no doubt” he would become a public educator. He said he had the desire to impact young children’s lives the same way his life was positively affected.

“I love public schools; my heroes growing up were public school teachers. [They] were the first ones where I ever believed college was something real I could do,” Johnson said.  “Teachers are dream-makers. We stand on the shoulders of giants…[teachers] possess the seeds of curiosity, sow ingenuity and reap knowledge, and [teachers] have the power to motivate people to go on and create great things and further our society to heights in ways we don’t even know yet.”

For his win Johnson received $3,000 and “custom-designed glassware commemorating their accomplishments.”