Award is given by Fredericksburg NAACP and Fredericksburg Education Foundation in honor of beloved longtime educator.
Lameka Parker, attendance secretary at James Monroe High School, got a phone call from a parent whose daughter was having anxiety about attending school.
“She said, ‘You helped me with my son, can you help me with my daughter?” Parker recalled.
As she always does, Parker met with the family. She told the girl, “How about we start with a daily hug? You come in here and I’ll have a hug for you. Whether you’re sick or not, bring it in.”
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The daily hug from Parker helped the student feel comfortable and welcomed at school. They still do the daily hug, Parker said, and will make up for a missed day with a double hug.
Parker’s gift for helping individual students overcome the barriers that prevent them from attending school is among the traits that led to her receiving a 2024 Marguerite B. Young Excellence in Education award from the Fredericksburg Branch NAACP and the Fredericksburg Education Foundation.
The award is given annually to one teacher, one paraprofessional, and one support staff member. This year’s recipients are Parker; Kimberli Stewart, a reading paraprofessional at Hugh Mercer Elementary School; and Tracey Young, a student support specialist at James Monroe High School.
Selected recipients demonstrate the ideals and educational principles of Young, a longtime educator in Fredericksburg City schools who served as a high school and middle school teacher, high school assistant principal, elementary and middle school principal, and the division’s director of instruction.
Young always championed the idea that every child can learn and is valued by the community. She believed in and fostered diversity, equity, and inclusion for students and staff long before the term “DEI” was coined, “tirelessly advocating for the principles of the NAACP and equality for all within the schools at every level,” according to her biography.
“The Fredericksburg Branch NAACP is very proud to be the sponsor of the Marguerite B. Young Excellence in Education Awards,” said Xavier Richardson, speaking on behalf of the branch. “We are very grateful and appreciative of all the selfless contributions [Young] has made to our community over the past 70 years, and the tremendous impact she has made on countless students, adults, and organizations.”
The awards were established five years ago as a way to provide “an enduring tribute” to Young.
“The criteria for the awards are truly representative of many of Mrs. Young’s strong principles and philosophy, including the belief that all students deserve the opportunity for a high-quality education that meets their individual needs,” Richardson said. “We believe that the awards assist in recognizing, rewarding, and retaining educators at a time when public schools are facing staffing challenges.”
Marguerite Bailey Young, 95, told the Advance that the awards go to educators “who do some of the same things I did 10,000 years ago when I was in the school system.”
“Educators do a lot for students, and it’s important to recognize those who are working hard for kids,” she said, especially those whose work for kids continues outside school walls.
“You can do things to help the child in the school, but if you can do things with them in the community, in their churches, in their activities outside of school—that’s even better,” Young said.
“More than an attendance secretary”
Parker is herself a graduate of city schools and participated in some of the programs Young created, specifically the Partnership for Academic Excellence, which provides free SAT skill-building workshops for minority students.
She said she tries to live up to Young’s name by “being everything to everybody.”
“I’m more than an attendance secretary,” she said. “I’m a counselor, a parent, a shoulder to cry on.”
Every student at James Monroe High School is “her baby” and Parker won’t give up on any of them. She will show up at homes and workplaces to find out what’s keeping students from school.
Recently, Parker said, she went to the workplace of an Afghan student who’d been absent for days because of his job schedule. She asked to speak to his manager.
“I said, ‘I need him back in school. I know he has family responsibilities, but can you schedule him around school hours?’” Parker said. “He was supposed to show up today, but he didn’t, so I’ll go back. They know I’ll go back.”
“Seeing the light bulbs go off”
That kind of personal relationship with students is what Kimberli Stewart tries to create.
Stewart is in her fourth year at Hugh Mercer, where she leads small group reading interventions for students in kindergarten through third grade.
“We usually have four kiddos per group, and we work on all those different skill sets, whether it’s fluency, comprehension, phonics, decoding,” Stewart said. “I like small group intervention. I feel like it’s more personal and I get to really zone in on the kids.”
She said she always takes time to ask the students how they’re doing and let them share what they want or need to share.
“When you’re in the classroom, you don’t have that time to get to listen to the kids and just talk, because you have an agenda and things you need to get done as a teacher,” Stewart said.
She acknowledged that education can be a challenging career and said she stays in the profession not for the pay, but for the reward of “[seeing] the light bulbs go off” in children’s brains when they learn how to read.
Stewart said she was “shocked” when she learned she had received a Marguerite B. Young award and that she is humbled and honored to be associated with her legacy.
“At the NAACP reception, [Young] said, ‘All children can learn.’ I love that philosophy,” Stewart said. I believe that wholeheartedly and believe that we never stop learning.”
“I know how much our students need us”
For Tracey Young, a student support specialist at James Monroe High School, receiving the award was deeply moving not only because of how much she respects Marguerite Young, but because it reminds her of her father.
Among the coincidences are the fact that his name was James Monroe, that he passed away a year ago to the day that she learned she would receive the award, and the fact he was emeritus president of the Waterbury, Connecticut NAACP branch.
“I feel like he was with me,” said Young. “And Ms. Young, I’ve watched her over the years because I am also a member of Shiloh Old Site. I know she’s passionate about everything she does, and I just feel so honored and want to make them proud of me.”
Young has worked at James Monroe since 2015, first as a special education teacher and now as a student support specialist, working with kids who need extra help to get back on track for graduation.
“I love my job completely,” she said. “I’ve wholeheartedly dedicated myself to the students in that building. I want to see them successful. That’s a blessing. A lot of people live their life and don’t know what God intended them to do. He intended me to be here.”
Young said she stays in the education profession because “I know how much our students need us.”
“We’re the next line for the kids [beyond their parents],” she said. “We have to be here for them.”
All three educators said the city school division feels like a family and that close-knit structure is what supports them in their efforts to build relationships with students.
“It feels like family, and it feels like home,” Young said. “I was never a stranger here.”
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