For the past twenty-four years the Veterans of Foreign Wars have held their Teacher of the Year competition. Teachers from grades K-12 can be nominated and must be judged by a criterion based off citizenship, innovation, resources, and passion. This year one of Ball High’s very own has been chosen as the 2023-2024 Teacher of the Year for the Department of Texas VFW. Major Mark Knight!
Major Knight is the Senior Army Instructor for Ball High’s JROTC program. He has worked at Ball for the past 11 years and prior to that he was in the army for 30 years. A few months ago Knight had submitted his name for this prestigious contest, not thinking anything of it let alone that he would win. One of the criteria for the contest involved authoring an essay about what he cares about, how proud he is of his kids, the future goals for JROTC and what they have accomplished.
Knight said that he was very personal in his essay, claiming, “It’s true when you speak about what you care about from the heart, it says a lot.”
He was shocked when he found out he had won the local competition and had a chance to win the district competition. He did not expect to accomplish such an amazing goal, but he was extremely happy to as Major Knight believes that some of the most dedicated teachers do not get the recognition they deserve and believes that the lack of recognition of these wonderful teachers can affect their paychecks.
Major Knight advanced through the competition until he alone, remained as the VFW Texas State All Subjects Teacher of the Year! The VFW invited our winning instructor to a black-tie event in Corpus Christi to receive the award in front of 600 people along with the other winners. There he was told that he was up for the national competition, which he would learn about within the next few months. We are extremely proud of our Ball High citizen for this accomplishment, and we will support him the whole way through.
Among the multitude of awards Knight won are two free steak nights at the Galveston VFW post, a $200 cash prize, a 1000$ cash prize, and a plaque for both awards to celebrate Major Mark Knights accomplishments. Congratulations Major Knight!
