{"id":544286,"date":"2026-01-26T15:00:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T15:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/544286\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T15:00:05","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T15:00:05","slug":"ribault-high-school-biology-teacher-named-2026-vystar-duval-county-teacher-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/544286\/","title":{"rendered":"Ribault High School biology teacher named 2026 VyStar Duval County Teacher of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><strong>JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 A biology teacher at Jean Ribault High School was named the 2026 VyStar Teacher of the Year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Dr. Mari Richardson, who has a Ph.D. in Public Health Epidemiology and worked for the Tennessee and Florida Departments of Public Health before entering the teaching profession, was selected from nearly 180 Teachers of the Year candidates by a committee of volunteers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">The announcement took place at the 35th Annual EDDY Awards on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">According to Duval County Public Schools, Richardson is the Science Department Chair at Ribault High School, serving as an instructional leader who supports teacher growth and student achievement. Moreover, she is a new teacher mentor, providing guidance, resources, and support to novice educators.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">\u201cIt wasn\u2019t until 2020, when I began working at Ribault High School as an environmental science teacher that I found what inspired me,\u201d said Richardson. \u201cWorking with students who often face academic and personal challenges, I realized that teaching is not just about delivering content, it\u2019s about building confidence, resilience, and a love of learning. Seeing students who once doubted themselves master complex concepts, lead peer discussions, and achieve success on assessments reinforces my purpose every day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\">Richardson joined The Morning Show on Monday to talk about what this award means to her and what she hopes people across Florida understand about public school teachers and students.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dist__Box-sc-1fnzlkn-0 dist__TextBase-sc-1fnzlkn-3 bYFsJw cuqaEv article-text\"><b>Watch the full interview with Dr. Richardson in the video above<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 A biology teacher at Jean Ribault High School was named the 2026 VyStar Teacher of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":544287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,8314,407,3188,723,7310,12013,239774,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-544286","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-duval-county","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-fl","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-jacksonville","14":"tag-morning-show","15":"tag-teacher-of-the-year","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-united-states-of-america","18":"tag-unitedstates","19":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115962001711040535","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}