Staci Butts did not start out to be a teacher. She was studying to be a lawyer. But once she got the call to teach, she changed direction and never looked back. Now the Ashville High School teacher is St. Clair County’s Secondary Teacher of the Year.

Butts earned a political science degree from Jacksonville State University, but got an opportunity to help out a high school cheerleading program during her senior year.

“I started helping and just decided that’s what I wanted to do and fell in love with teaching,” she said.

So she returned to JSU for her master’s degree in social science in 1997 and has been teaching for the last 14 years. In addition to teaching government, economics, psychology and sociology, she also sponsors Junior Achievement and Future Teachers of America, works with kids in the elementary school and takes her students on field trips each year.

Congratulations to Butts on being chosen Secondary Teacher of the Year, and congratulations to Ashville High.