Moorhead Area Public Schools superintendent Dr. Brandon Lunak presented Monica Peterson with the Spud Spirit Award for February 2024. Monica is an AVID teacher at Moorhead High School. She is in her 19th year with the district.
Dr. Lunak, joined by dozens of MHS students and staff, surprised Monica with the award with an impromptu ceremony on the Learning Stair inside the new high school. He told her she was nominated for the award by a parent because she is “a very kind and passionate teacher, who is driven to see that her students succeed in school.”
“You helped a shy [student] gain confidence with the simple assignment of asking her to hand out AVID materials at Horizon Middle School,” Dr. Lunak continued, relaying a story from Monica’s nominator. “By distributing materials to middle schoolers, she was able to overcome her shyness and answer questions the younger students had about AVID.”
Monica’s ability to continue to find ways—over the course of nearly two decades with the district—to help her students grow is highly representative of the district's mission to develop the maximum potential of every student.
The Spud Spirit Award is a recognition program that honors MAPS staff who live by the district mission to develop the maximum potential of every learner to thrive in a changing world and showcase our Spud Spirit statements:
- Students, staff, parents, families, and the Moorhead community
- Passionate, engaged, innovative, and growing in safe environments
- Unique, worthy, respectful, and relationship-based
- Diversity enriches our school and community
- Stewards of the public’s trust in effective and efficient operations
Spud Spirit Award nominations are made by staff, student families and community members.
View highlights from the presentation here: