Science teacher Matthew Johnson received the 21st annual Board of Education Distinguished Service Award on Thursday, May 3 in recognition of his extraordinary accomplishments at Watkins Mill High School.

First awarded in fall of 1997, the award aims to recognize and appreciate individuals, groups and businesses that have made commendable contributions to public education in Montgomery County. With up to three recipients in six different categories, the award winners are nominated by their peers. In this case, principal Carol Goddard and her administrative team decided to nominate Johnson for the award.  “The first thing that came to my mind [was nominating him],” Goddard said.

Johnson was nominated for his contributions to the Watkins Mill community through events like Rock the Block, among other things. “It’s all about Matt Johnson, who he is and what he gives,” Goddard added. “We are tying to dispel some of the rumors of how awful we are here, when in actuality this is really a great place.”

But despite always making a conscious effort to make The Mill better, the nomination, let alone the win, only became known to Johnson when he retrieved a letter in the mail, informing him that he had won.

“I didn’t even find out about it until last month when I got a package in the mail, opened it up and it had a letter that said, ‘Congratulations you have won the Board of Education Distinguished Service Award,’ and I was like ‘whoaaaaaaaaa.’” Johnson said, “I was pretty surprised. A lot of us who do the work that we are doing don’t do it to be recognized, we are doing it just because [we] feel like there is a need for it.”

Those recognized were given a few moments to say some words. “I went with the theme of support,” Johnson said.  “I had a lot of support, and when I first got here and noticed a lot of students didn’t have the support that I had growing up, so I wanted to be the person for them, to support them through whatever.”

Afterwards, the winners took a picture together and went their separate ways, holding their awards in hand, knowing, even if only for a little while, that their efforts were, in fact, worth it.

Gallery • 4 Photos

Johnson accepts his award and delivers a few words