Meet Wake County’s top 10 educators. One will be named 2023 Teacher of the Year.

Next week, the Wake County school system will announce its 2023 Teacher of the Year.

Superintendent Catty Moore led the district’s annual Teacher of the Year Surprise Patrol to personally give the news to the 10 finalists. The winner from among Wake’s 11,000 teachers will be announced at a ceremony on April 27.

The 2022-23 Teacher of the Year finalists are:

▪ Ross Anderson, a seventh-grade social studies teacher at Moore Square Middle School in Raleigh.

▪ Ginny Clayton, an English Second Language teacher at Cary High School.

▪ Darius Davis, a special education teacher at Washington Elementary School in Raleigh.

▪ Tyler Ellzey, a third-grade teacher at Buckhorn Creek Elementary School in Holly Springs.

▪ Jane Ferguson, an English Second Language teacher at Brooks Elementary School in Raleigh.

▪ Sarah Freeman, an English teacher at Wake Forest High School.

▪ Terry Hennings, a Civic Literacy and African American Studies teacher at Garner High School.

▪ Kaitlyn Putt, a seventh-grade English Language arts teacher at Carroll Middle School in Raleigh.

▪ Leroy Salazar, a Spanish teacher at the Wake Early College of Information & Biotechnologies in Morrisville.

▪ Chris Stapleton, an English teacher at Apex Friendship High School.

All 198 Wake County schools had a Teacher of the Year selected by its faculty. District selection committees narrowed the field to 20 semifinalists and finally the 10 finalists.

Wake’s winner will receive a prize package and go on to compete in the North Carolina Teacher of the Year competition.

Recently, Kimberly Jones, an English teacher at Chapel Hill High School, was named the 2023 North Carolina Teacher of the Year.