McAllister Elementary School Principal Bivins Miller nearly ran out of superlatives Thursday night describing teacher Emily Dixon.

Miller said Dixon brings “passion, energy, and excitement to the classroom, and she’s not afraid to think outside the box and try new things.”

But most importantly, the principal said, Dixon “loves the kids” and lives up to the saying, “they don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

That was shortly before another superlative was applied to Dixon, named Bryan County Schools’ 2018 district Teacher of the Year during a school board meeting at Bryan County Middle School.

That puts Dixon in the competition for Georgia’s state Teacher of the Year, but Bryan County Schools Superintendent Dr. Paul Brooksher said were she to win the competition, she’d be gone from McAllister for a year.

“(Miller) said ‘she’s going to win state,’ and I said, ‘you know if she does, you’re going to lose her for a year,’ and he said, ‘nope,’ she’s going to finish second,” Brooksher joked.

Dixon, a fifth grade teacher at McAllister, was joined at the school board meeting by the teachers who won their schools’ Teacher of the Year honors for 2018: Hollis Hill, Bryan County Elementary; Kimberly Kaiser, Bryan County High School; Sunny Beasly, Bryan County Middle School; Dorothy Anderson, Carver Elementary; Janet McIntosh, Lanier Primary; Whitney Gale, Richmond Hill Elementary; Emma Fettes, Richmond Hill High School; Danielle Ennis, Richmond Hill Middle School; and Courtney Adams, Richmond Hill Primary School.