Prince William County, Manassas, Manassas Park Educators Win Awards

Andrew Stanley, a history teacher at C.D. Hylton Senior High School, has a tough challenge: covering the basics of world history, from 1500 to the present, in just a half-year -- and making it meaningful for a crowd of 14- and 15-year-olds. He explains the causes of World War I, for example, by comparing countries to a group of insecure high school boys.

"It's not just about being able to recall from memory this litany of basic facts. It's about the why and the how of what people and countries and civilizations do," he said.

And Terry DeCarbo, principal of Independent Hill School-PACE East Program, an alternative school in Prince William County, takes an unconventional approach to education as well: He doesn't bother to keep an office.

"Wherever I am is where my office is," he says. Being tied to a desk would keep him away from students and teachers, he thinks, so instead he roams hallways, keeping an eye on learning at work.

Stanley and DeCarbo are Prince William's winners of The Washington Post education awards this year. Stanley, who has taught in the Prince William school system for 15 years, won the Agnes Meyer Outstanding Teacher Award, and DeCarbo, who has been a principal in Prince William for 17 years, won the Distinguished Educational Leadership Award.

Other Agnes Meyer award winners in the area include Brian Maceyak, a special education teacher at Mayfield Intermediate School in Manassas; Allyson Kurtz, a special education teacher at Cougar Elementary School in Manassas Park; and Laura Lacey, a history teacher at Brooke Point High School in Stafford County. Other area winners of the Distinguished Educational Leadership Award include Eric Neff, principal of Manassas Park Middle School; and Gayle Thyrring, principal of Falmouth Elementary School in Stafford County.

Stanley said that in college he didn't intend to be a history teacher and that he started his career thinking it would be temporary.

"I joke that I'm in the 15th year of what was going to be a five-year career," he said. He just didn't want to walk away, he said.

And his students praise him for bringing what history that could otherwise seem distant to life.

Beatrice Loayza, 16, a sophomore at Hylton who took Stanley's world history class last year, recalled his telling "quirky stories" about Renaissance art that he showed to the class. Loayza said that the stories helped the class remember the lesson and that Stanley had inspired her to keep taking history courses.

At the Independent Hill School-PACE East Program, DeCarbo has had to confront a host of other difficulties.

The school, which has two programs, one for students with cognitive impairment and one for students with emotional difficulties, had suffered for funding and attention before DeCarbo's arrival. He brought in classroom technology on par with that of other schools in the county, and teachers praise him for his openness and enthusiasm.

In the past several years, DeCarbo has overseen the expansion of vocational programs such as catering and greenhouse businesses. The school has started in recent years to pay its older students for their involvement with the businesses, something he said has greatly reduced dropout rates among older students. Many of his students have been going on to community college, apprenticeships and the military. One was even recently accepted to Yale University's School of Drama.

"This is a school of second, third, fourth and fifth chances," DeCarbo said. "There's an abundance of chances for our students."