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The Troup County School System named its three finalists for teacher of the year this week.

The three finalists are Jill Kemp, kindergarten teacher at Hollis Hand Elementary; Courtney Agurs, science teacher at Callaway Middle School; and Hannah Frady, ninth and tenth-grade social studies teacher at Troup High School.

It’s always fun to see the reactions from teachers when they are surprised as one of the final three candidates. This was the first year that Superintendent Brian Shumate got to participate in the surprise announcement in Troup County, and the photos show him and other administrators making the announcement in each teacher’s classroom so that they can celebrate with students. Good teachers are notoriously underpaid everywhere, work long hours and give up so much time to ensure every child in their classroom is successful and prepared for their next stage of life.

TCSS is doing a lot of positive things to recruit and retain teachers, and we’ve written about many of those measures in this space.

But there’s something special about being recognized as one of the best out of all of the teachers in Troup County, and Kemp, Frady and Agurs have received that honor. Teaching is all too often a thankless profession, so we’re sure this surprise announcement meant a lot to each of them. We applaud all three of them for their hard work and wish them luck as they await the banquet, where the teacher of the year will officially be announced.

Whoever wins, we wish them luck in the statewide competition where they will have to go through the process all over again. TCSS has had a top 10 finalists twice in the past five years, so we are hopefully our teachers keep the strong tradition of education here in Troup County alive throughout the state.