UT Highlights West Hills and Santana Educators in Running for County Teacher of the Year

UT San Diego published a story Friday highlighting two Santee teachers in the running for San Diego County Teacher of the Year, Santana's Eileen Bagg-Rizzo and West Hill's Randy Cambou.

Santee dominated this year's Grossmont Union High School District Teacher of the Year awards, with two local teachers being chosen as the top of the pack to send to the San Diego County Teacher of the Year competition. The winners will be announced at a ceremony on Saturday.

Eileen Bagg-Rizzo teaches English and Team Excel, a course in the Environmental Design Pathway at Santana, where she has been teaching since 1990. She also coaches Varsity Swim, has been a Department Chairperson, and has served as Coordinator for the AP Challenge Grant, a literacy program, and the English Language Learner’s program. 

Each nominee for the county award wrote an essay and Bagg-Rizzo focused on her experiences with students surrounding the Santana shooting in 2001.

Randy Cambou is an A.P. Government Teacher and the WASC Coordinator at West Hills, where he has been teaching since 2004.

A student of Randy Cambou said, “Mr. Cambou doesn’t teach for the money or the summer vacation; he teaches in the hopes of inspiring just one person to change the world. If there was one thing I took away from his class, it is that I am a single pebble; while I may be small and overlooked, I am capable of creating great ripples in even the largest bodies of water.”

The five winners picked from the 45 nominees will go on to represent the county at the state teach of the year competition.