The Toppenish School District Educator of the Year is a product of the district.
Krista Goudy graduated from Toppenish High School in 1999. She has worked as a certified preschool teacher for the district since she was hired as part of the Indian Demonstration Grant in the fall of 2004.
She taught with Yakama Nation Head Start through this grant through the 2006/07 school year.
She joined the Toppenish Preschool in 2007 as the classroom teacher for three-year-olds, and then transitioned to the Gates Demonstration classroom in March of 2008. 
This year, 75 percent of Goudy’s students demonstrated mastery of identification of the alphabet letters in random order. 
Goudy has demonstrated expertise in the use of the Imagine It! reading program, which is designed to provide pre-kindergarten students with “exposure” to the alphabet, not mastery. 
One in four students in her class this year are on an individualized education plan.
Only one of these will not be participating in the general education reading and math programs in kindergarten next year.
Other areas in which Goudy showed leadership during the year are extracurricular activities at the High School, including summer programs, serving as a PTO officer at Kirkwood Elementary, and serving as a mentor and a member of the Teacher Induction Committee. 
Classified Educator of the Year Jim Purdy has been with the Toppenish School District for 19 years. 
He has been the daytime custodian at Kirkwood Elementary School for all of those years. 
He has assumed a leadership role in providing a caring and clean learning environment for the students and staff at Kirkwood. 
He has volunteered many hours during family nights at the school, and has worked with the Toppenish High School special education department to provide job skills to students.
He also volunteers during the winter program to be Santa Claus to take pictures and hand out candy canes to the children.
Purdy helped in the school’s canned food drive by shaving his head and his mustache, and the drive collected 3,700 pounds of food this year.
He is also involved in the community as a member of Yakima County and Zillah Fire departments.