Sage of SSTAGE Award
Co-founder of SSTAGE and former GaDOE Liaison to the SSTAGE Board of Directors, Frank “Buz” Y. Smith was honored at the February 9th Best Practices Conferences for his many years of service to educators, families, and students in Georgia. He served more than 30 years in education, with 28 of them at the Department of Education. During this time, Frank co-produced many best practices manuals and presented throughout the state and at national conferences. In 2000, he and Lynn Pennington co-founded the Metro SST Consortium in 2000, which later incorporated as a non-profit organization called SSTAGE. Frank was instrumental in ensuring this organization was started off on the right foot, and we like to say that he is the “Sage of SSTAGE.” Pictured above with Frank are Debbie Rondem, the 2010-11 SSTAGE President, and Executive Director Lynn Pennington.
Pyramid of Interventions & RTI Leadership Award
On January 13, 2010, John Wight, GaDOE’s Director of Assessment Administration and Accountability, was presented with a special award entitled Pyramid of Interventions & RTI Leadership Award for his statewide leadership in RTI and Pyramid of Interventions.
RTI Lifesaver Award
Dr. Paula Freer, 2009 SSTAGE President, presented Jim Wright with the RTI Lifesaver Award at the 2009 SSTAGE Fall Conference for his contribution to RTI and his continuous outreach to educators through the development of www.interventioncentral.org and other free websites.
