Here’s a tricky math problem: You have thousands of amazing statewide nominees, and thousands of great applications, but only one can win Oregon Teacher of the Year.
What does each need to do to claim the title? The solutions seem infinite.
It’s a good thing Beaumont Middle School math teacher, Bryan Butcher Jr., has all the tools to solve it.
Butcher was named Oregon’s 2024-25 Teacher of the Year earlier this month.
As of Wednesday, Oct. 30, he still had no idea who nominated him.
“That is the most humbling of it all. That means somebody took the time to fill out this application and they thought of me,” Butcher said. “That means that I’m having an impact on someone, somehow, someway, and that’s the goal of teaching.”
He called the win a blessing.
Standing shocked at an assembly, where Butcher was surprised with the news, he said he felt a multitude of emotions going through his body, as his mom, dad, sister and more converged on the event to celebrate.
Butcher is in his sixth year at Beaumont, but has been teaching for 12 years, climbing his way from elementary school to middle school.