The Tustin Unified School District is holding its 2012 Teacher of the Year Program. The annual awards program recognizes outstanding TUSD teachers who have displayed extraordinary teaching, creativity and excellence at their school and in the community.

Each school will select a Teacher of the Year and submit an application to the District Communications Office. The schools’ nominees will be considered as candidates for the TUSD Teacher of the Year Program, which is a prelude to the Orange County/California Teachers of the Year 2012-13 Program.

The TUSD Teacher of the Year Selection Committee will interview each nominee. Three Tustin Unified Teachers of the Year – elementary, middle and high school – will be announced in March and then go on to the county program.

Last year, Lambert Elementary School second-grade teacher Tina Kim was selected as Orange County Teacher of the Year and named a semifinalist in the California Teachers of the Year Program.

The Tustin Public Schools Foundation will honor the District’s Teachers of the Year and all nominees at its 18th annual Teacher of the Year Dinner on Friday, April 27 at 5 p.m. at the Irvine Marriott Hotel.

For more information, call the TUSD Communications Office at (714) 730-7339.