PELHAM – Pelham City Schools teachers Alicia Melton and Caron Riley were recently named Teacher of the Year at Riverchase Middle and Pelham Oaks schools, respectively.

Melton, an eighth grade science teacher at Riverchase, received her undergraduate degree from the University of Mississippi and her teaching license from Western Carolina University.

Melton has been a teacher at Riverchase since 2014 and is the sponsor of the National Junior Honors Society and the RMS Science Fair. She also serves as the coach of the school’s Science Olympiad team.

Riley has been a teacher for 28 years with four of those years being in Pelham. She received a bachelor’s degree in early childhood education from the University of Alabama and a master’s in early childhood education from the University of Montevallo.

“I am the luckiest, most blessed person,” Riley said. “Everyone that I work with, they’re all Teacher of the Year. Everyone is so professional and wonderful. I’m the lucky one to be able to work with them.”

Melton, Riley and the two other Teachers of the Year – Jennifer Church and Lee Short who went on to become district Teachers of the Year – were among teachers nominated at each school by their peers for the award. Each nominated teacher had to submit their teaching resume and write a paper explaining their philosophy of teaching.

A committee then selected a winner for each school and those people entered the running to become the district’s elementary and secondary Teacher of the Year.