Neillsville Science Teacher Selected as Crystal Apple Winner

Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021 -- 2:37 PM

Neillsville Science Teacher Randi Stanley was selected as a Marshfield Chamber of Commerce Crystal Apple Award Winner.

Mrs. Stanley began her career in Hastings, Minnesota as a middle school science teacher for a year and then taught high school in Rice Lake for a year.  She then moved to this area.

She was offered a couple jobs, but chose the Neillsville School District and has been here for 23 years.  She was very grateful to receive the Crystal Apple Award, but she was a little overwhelmed.

Mrs. Stanley:  “I’m a little overwhelmed by this amazing honor.  I just really feel like my job everyday is to help students and I just try to do a better job with that every single day, so to be recognized for that, I feel like I’m just being recognized for what I like to do.”

Debbie Bauer, Program Director at the Marshfield Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry, explained the selection process for the Crystal Apple Award and shared some of the comments Mrs. Stanley received.

Debbie:  “The crystal apple winners are selected by a team of 8 business people.  It’s a cross mix of businesses from the Marshfield Area community.  And they actually meet with our 25 Teachers of Distinction and this year we did it all virtual.  And they have questions they ask of these individuals and, from that, they do a scoring system."

"And Mrs. Stanley, and the other three, just rose to the top.  They have some discussion and they have some criteria they’re looking at, so it is a process they have to go through to receive this accomplishment.”

“Some of the comments that came back about Mrs. Stanley is that she’s just an outstanding teacher; she’s the real deal; she’s genuine; she’s admired and respected by all; and I think the one that really sticks with me is she’s one of the best teachers ever."

"And these are coming from students.  In 12 years of education, they go through a lot of different teachers, but she’s obviously making an impact on these young lives.”

Neillsville High School Principal Craig Anderson was thrilled for Mrs. Stanley.

Mr. Anderson:  “Could not be more thrilled for an individual.  I’ve been in education for 24 years, in two different school districts, and I’ve had the pleasure to work with some really outstanding and talented people.  Randi Stanley jumps to the top of that list."

"When you look at what we do on a daily basis, year in and year out, you hear the same things from kids that graduated a decade ago as you would of kids that are walking our halls right now."

"It’s no disrespect to any other educator.  Our teachers here in this building would say the same thing.  Who’s the best teacher you’ve got?  Randi Stanley.  Kids, whose the best teacher you’ve ever had?  Mrs. Stanley.  It is just something about what she does that makes her nothing short of a modern day superhero in my opinion.”

The Neillsville District, its administration, teachers and students continually are recognized for their efforts and Mr. Anderson contributes that success to the teachers and students.

Mr. Anderson:  “Every school district wants to put the best quality people in classrooms that we can.  Locally, for us, I do believe we’ve been very fortunate.  Neillsville has a lot of home grown educators that chose to come back here.  And I’ve got to believe that a lot of that is just a culture that we have here."

"Education is always changing.  We’re always looking to make things better.  Whether it’s our newest staff or some of our most veteran staff, we’re not happy with just business as usual, we are always trying to improve and do things better for our kids and our community and everybody deserves that.”

Mrs. Stanley will now attend a banquet in May to be honored for her accomplishment.

Debbie:  “The banquet is scheduled for May 5th at Hotel Marshfield and she’s going to have probably 15 minutes to really just talk about her teaching philosophy, share some of the innovative things she does in her classroom, and just other stories that she wants to share.  It’s an emotional night sometimes because they have such a passion these teachers!  But it is so rewarding being able to honor these educators.”

Once again, that banquet is being held on May 5th at Hotel Marshfield.  Congratulations to Mrs. Stanley for her accomplishment.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.