Support Person on the Year
The Betty Campion Distinguished Support Service Award was established in 1990 to recognize the many contributions support persons make to the learning community in Oakland County. The award is named in honor of former Oakland Schools Board member Betty Campion. Mrs. Campion served on the Oakland Schools Board of Education from 1978 to 1992. Prior to serving on the Oakland Schools Board, Mrs. Campion served 10 years on the Board of Education for the Walled Lake Consolidated School District and 21 years as a PTA member.
Nominees of the Betty Campion Award are members of a local school district’s support staff (transportation, maintenance, custodial, clerical, food service, or classroom support and paraeducators) who go above and beyond the call of duty in creating a supportive learning environment. They are active not only in their schools, but in the community as well. Nominees must have at least five years of service in his/her current position. There is a limit of one nomination per district.
2026 Winners
Northeast Quadrant
| Lisa Locker, a paraeducator at Avondale Middle School in the Avondale District. Lisa works with the school’s most challenging students, hosting lunch detentions, after school detentions, and in school suspensions in her room. She maintains a positive attitude and encourages students even when they take out their frustrations on her. Lisa also goes out of her way to help our students grow as people. It is not uncommon to hear her talking students through their mistakes, helping them to understand why they made those mistakes, and coming up with a plan to do better in the future. On more than one occasion, students have come back to Lisa after going to high school, telling her, “You were right” and “I should have listened to you, high school is so much harder than I thought it would be.” |
Northwest Quadrant
No nominees submitted.
Southeast Quadrant
Amy Cooper, Administrative Assistant to the principal at Edmonson Elementary School in the Lamphere District. Amy’s principal says, “Mrs. Cooper and I started together nine years ago and neither of us has ever worked in an elementary school. To say we had no idea what we were doing, would be an understatement. The first few years we learned together and relied on each other heavily. In our time together, our school has seen over 20% gains in every test area, became a Leader in Me Lighthouse School, a Reward School, earned a spot on the Leader in Me Honor Roll for academic achievement, and survived the covid years. Her success is my success and none of what we’ve accomplished at our school would be possible without her encouragement, support, and hard work.”
Southwest Quadrant
Laurie Adashek, a paraprofessional at Sayre Elementary School in the South Lyon district. When the nomination form for Support Person of the Year went out to the Sayre community, out of all of the nominations that were submitted, Laurie received 43% of the total votes. Her daily duties as a building paraprofessional can range from providing medical support to providing behavior and social emotional support, to helping with traffic at arrival and dismissal, supervising indoor recess on rainy days, or helping in the front office when a secretary is out of the building. There has never been a time when she has said that she can’t do something when asked. Without being asked, during a time when the school was desperately short on subs, Laurie took the initiative to obtain her guest teaching certificate in effort to help out more at the school.