Unethia Fox Named Miami-Dade County Public Schools Teacher Of The Year

Miami FL

07 February, 2022

9:01 AM

Description

A Miami Times Staff Report, the Miami Times Unethia Fox, a special education mathematics teacher at South Miami Senior High School, has been named the 2023 Francisco R. Walker Miami-Dade County Teacher of the Year. Fox, who is also a graduate of the school where she now teaches, has been an educator there for 19 years. She also serves as a Black history coordinator/African American history advocate and is an Educational Excellence School Advisory Council (EESAC) committee member. Outside the classroom, Fox is the head coach of the girls' basketball, volleyball, flag football and track teams. Her girls' basketball team won the district championship in 2014. In 2009 she was named Florida's National Federation High School Basketball Coach of the Year. Fox also revived the "Watu Wazuri" club. The Swahili phrase means "good people," and she was a member as a student. It provides a safe space for Black and minority students to do community service projects. For being named the top teacher out of more than 17,000 teachers in the Miami-Dade County Public Schools system, Fox will receive $10,500. In her acceptance speech, she thanked school officials and shared some special words for her students and their parents. "Parents, thank you for trusting me with your children," Fox said. "And to my students, you are the reason I smile." This year's ceremony was the first held in person in two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is also the last ceremony for departing superintendent of schools Alberto Carvalho. "You all represent the best and the goodness of our community, state and our nation," said Carvalho. "Even on your worst of days, you represent a child's best opportunity." The Miami Times is the largest Black-owned newspaper in the south serving Miami's Black community since 1923. The award-winning weekly is frequently recognized as the best Black newspaper in the country by the National Newspaper Publishers Association.