Union County High instructor, bus driver awarded $50K as Florida Teacher of Year

ORLANDO, Fla. — Mark Harrison, an economics and American government teacher at Union County High School who also serves as a school bus driver there, won the Florida Teacher of the Year at a gala on Thursday night in Orlando.

He will receive a $50,000 bonus for the achievement.

Gov. Ron DeSantis, along with newly appointed Florida Education Commissioner Anastasios Kamoutsas, awarded five Teacher of the Year finalists with a $20,000 bonus on Thursday in Orlando.

The other finalists were Brandy Nicole Anderson, a civics teacher and head of the social studies department at Indian Trails Middle School in Flagler County; Autumn Crabtree, a culinary arts teacher at Crystal River High School in Citrus County who also is certified in mathematics and family and consumer science; Shelly Teel, a third-grade teacher at Westside Elementary in Columbia County; and Katy Jo Harrison, a first-grade teacher at Hosford Elementary and Junior High School in Liberty County.

“I had the honor of meeting some of the outstanding educators who have helped make our state the national leader in education,” DeSantis stated in a post on X.

All 76 district Teachers of the Year, nominated by their colleagues for exceptional service to students, will receive a $10,000 bonus, according to DeSantis. They were selected from among 175,000 public school teachers in the state.