Math teacher Lissa Avis named 2024 Helen B. Mitteer Employee of the Year

by Mary Jo David

Jr./Sr. High School Principal Jeff Trapp announces that Lissa Avis is the 2024 winner of the Helen B. Mitteer Employee of the Year award. Photo credit: Steve Keskes

Once again, the highlight of the Stockbridge Schools’ Welcome Back Staff Breakfast, which was held on August 13, was the announcement of the 2024 winner of the Helen B. Mitteer Employee of the Year award. This year, that special award went to Lissa Avis, an extraordinary teacher who heads up the math department and coaches cross country at Stockbridge Junior/Senior High School. Avis has taught for 25 years—23 of those years have been in Stockbridge.

The Mitteer award is managed by the Stockbridge Area Educational Foundation (SAEF). As part of the award, Avis receives $1,500 she can put toward any educational pursuit. Upon the announcement of her name, everyone in the packed school cafeteria stood and applauded in recognition for all Avis has accomplished.

Prior to presenting the honor, principal Jeff Trap shared a short history of this SAEF award, which was first awarded in 2013. He then called upon Steve Allison, who teaches in the PASS program, and Susan Lockhart, who teaches physical education, to assist in presenting this year’s well-deserved Mitteer Award.

Avis, surrounded by her husband and two children and holding a lovely floral bouquet, listened as Allison and Lockhart expounded on the reasons for their nominations.

Allison focused on the hometown bond he shares with Avis. They were students together in 8th grade band where they both participated in the 24-hour Band Marathon. For as long as he’s known her, academics has always been important to Avis. When Allison joined the staff at Stockbridge, he was thrilled to see his old friend was also on the staff.

“Her consistency and persistence are why her students and and the staff who work with Lissa do so well,” Allison explained.

As a case in point, he mentioned how well prepared his Algebra students have always been when they finish their time in Avis’s class. When working with others, Allison regularly asks the question “What is your why?” but he says that after years of experience working with Avis—he never questions her “why,” he just knows she’s doing the right thing.

Lockhart shared selections about Avis from her nomination letter to the SAEF Board. She pointed out that Avis teaches the most advanced math course at the high school—AP Calculus—and although she does so with a very high success rate, she is extremely humble about this accomplishment.

On a personal level, Lockhart recalled seeking out Avis’s advice when Lockhart was a new teacher faced with struggling students who were acting out. Avis patiently brainstormed with Lockhart and shared proven resources Avis used in her own classroom to help Lockhart get over the hump.

“I implemented those resources and it made all the difference in my teaching and my students’ learning for years to come,” Lockhart recalled.

Lockhart sees Avis as an “expert at curriculum design and delivery” who works hard to come up with ideas for challenging her students “to think at their highest level and achieve their best.”

As Avis’s family looked on, Lockhart praised Avis for being so willing to give her time—even after regular school hours and during summer tutoring sessions—to provide students with extra help when they need it.

All of the Avis “extras” pay off in the long run for her students. Lockhart cited a past student of Avis’s who has gone on to a very successful career. According to this past student, “I love Mrs. Avis! … Everything I do in supply-chain management is just solving a complex mathematical story problem, and she prepared me for that.”

During her own college years, Avis was placed in the doctoral math program at Michigan State University and was basically told she was too smart for public school teaching. Avis’s response: “Isn’t that the exact person you’d want teaching your kid?”

All of Stockbridge can be thankful for that kind of wisdom from Lissa Avis who continues to dedicate her time and efforts to making SCS students successful.

Helen Bullis Mitteer was born in Pinckney, Michigan, in 1910. In the fall of 1929, she started teaching in a rural, one-room schoolhouse between Pinckney and Gregory. For over 40 years Mrs. Mitteer was a committed, caring, and patient teacher to thousands of students in the Stockbridge Community. Her dedication to Stockbridge Schools is now perpetuated through the financial support provided to those employees who reflect her unselfish commitment to the students of Stockbridge Schools.

Math department chair and teacher Lissa Avis (with bouquet) is surrounded by some of her biggest fans: Left to right, Steve Allison, son Alex, husband Andy, daughter Rachel, Susan Lockhart, and Principal Jeff Trapp. Photo credit: Steve Keskes