Viola Gibson teacher finalist for Iowa Teacher of the Year

CEDAR RAPIDS — Susie Stark, a second-grade teacher at Viola Gibson Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, is one of nine finalists for 2025’s Iowa Teacher of the Year.

Stark attributes the success of her students over the years to the relationships she builds with them and their families.

“Before the school year even begins, I send letters, I make phone calls — it’s important for them to know me as a person. I email parents often and give them my cellphone number because I want that open communication,” Stark said.

Families are a critical part of a student’s success in the classroom and can support learning at home by talking about what their child learned at school, Stark said.

“It becomes not just a teacher-parent relationship, but a friendship in a very deliberate and critical way,” Stark said. “The child is the center of our conversations.”

One of Stark’s favorite roles is teaching students to read. Stark also has taught second- and fifth-graders over the years.

“They are reading to learn in fifth grade, but there also are students still struggling to learn how to read, so you have to support those students...,” Stark said. “When you can’t read, and you know you should be able to read, that’s really scary. When I can get them to trust me, then we make a lot of gains.”

Teacher at age 35

Stark, now 60, didn’t become a teacher until she was 35.

She initially went to Iowa State University with the dream of becoming a veterinarian after graduating from Center Point Pointers — now the Center Point-Urbana Community School District — in 1983.

She was a good student, but then she got a “C” in chemistry.

“My adviser said, ‘You’re never going to make it.’ He said, ‘You’re a woman. You’re not getting straight ‘A’s. You might as well give up,’ ” Stark recalled.

“While I love animals, I wasn’t supposed to be a veterinarian. I was supposed to be a teacher,” she said.

But she takes that feedback she received from her adviser and uses it to empower people — especially girls. “Never pull the rug out from anyone. Build them up and give them the steps to do it,” Stark said.

Before becoming a teacher, Stark waited tables and was a business service manager at a now-closed Chrysler dealership in Center Point where she learned how to fix brakes and rebuild carburetors, among other jobs.

In the 1990s, she opened a day care center in Center Point called Center Point Childcare with her father, Don Dufoe. It continues operating today under a different name and ownership.

“I was always doing paperwork — hiring, firing and training. Things I really didn’t enjoy much,” Stark said.

So, encouraged by her dad, she went back to school at the University of Iowa and now holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in elementary education.

She began teaching fifth grade in the Cedar Rapids Community School District in the early 2000s.

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Reading scores

While Stark said she “loved” teaching fifth-graders, the stress of preparing students for success in middle school was “weighing” on her. She wanted a long career in teaching, so she decided to move to teaching second grade four years ago.

Stark is especially proud of her students’ reading scores.

“They walk out of (second grade) being able to read, which is just amazing,” she said.

She enjoys second-graders’ “passion for learning.”

“They are so enthralled,” she said. “There’s never anything they’re not wanting to learn. They’re never bored. They always want to do it. I just love it and their innocence and openness.”

Annual honor

Since 1958, the Teacher of the Year award recognizes an Iowa teacher who advances student learning through evidence-based instruction, empowers students, learns from and invests in fellow educators and works in partnership with families.

Nominations for the honor are submitted by educators, students, families and fellow Iowans.

If named Iowa Teacher of the Year, Stark would have to take a year off from teaching and serve as an ambassador for the Iowa Department of Education and a representative of and liaison for Iowa educators.

Stark said while it’s an honor to be nominated, she would miss the classroom, especially as close as she is to retirement.

“I would have to come back and be with my people,” she said.

Stark was named Grant Wood Regional Teacher of the Year. Nine educators were named Regional Teachers of the Year, a new designation this year that “celebrates excellence in teaching across all corners of our state,” Iowa Department of Education Director McKenzie Snow said in a news release.

Stark said she was surprised to be nominated for Teacher of the Year and has “no idea” who nominated her. “I never envisioned myself as that person,” Stark said.

If selected, she said she wants to “encourage” other teachers to stick with the career.

“There’s so many young teachers that get into the profession and are leaving so quickly,” Stark said. “You dedicate your life and find that balance between work and home and keep that passion through the years.”

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Other second-grade teachers at Viola Gibson Elementary sing Stark’s praises. Stark calls herself the “mom” of the group.

Caitlin Vint said Stark is “dependable.” Another second-grade teacher Frannie Hasan said Stark’s nomination for Iowa Teacher of the year is “well-deserved.”

Sarah Maher, also a second grade teacher at Viola Gibson, said Stark makes her life “beautiful.” Stark continually shares curriculum tools she’s created, such as activities and slideshows, with other teachers.

“It shows she’s in it for the kids and not for herself,” Maher said.

Several teachers from the Cedar Rapids district have previously served as Iowa Teacher of the Year. Most recently, George Anderson, a social studies teacher at Kennedy High School, was named the 2020 Iowa Teacher of the Year. Tania Johnson, a kindergarten teacher at Jackson Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, was named the 2013 Iowa Teacher of the Year.

Comments: (319) 398-8411; grace.king@thegazette.com

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