Quality of service, welfare of children, instructional methods, building trust and confidence and creativity are all things that were taken into account as orchestra teacher Nate McClendon was being considered for the Bob Srack Excellence in Teaching award. All of which were traits that parents believed McClendon inhibited as he was given the award on August 10.

Senior Nyza Milligan, who has been in orchestra throughout high school, appreciates McClendon’s unique way of teaching.

“He finds a way at figuring out where your comfort zone lies then he pushes past it,” Milligan said. “You know, so this way you have a broader look on life. He breaks past your walls so you don’t set tight boundaries on life.”

Although loved widely by students and parents, McClendon felt as though last year was not his best.

“[Winning the award] was really humbling because I felt last year was my worst teaching year,” McClendon said. “I’ve been teaching since 1993 and last year was the toughest year I’ve ever had as a teacher. So bad to the point that on the last day of school, I actually apologized to my students for not being as good of a teacher as I expected myself to be. So that’s why the shock of seeing that I was nominated, much less winning it was just crazy.”

Winning the award was surprising, but nothing compared to the feeling that came with knowing parents nominated him, McClendon said.

“To know that it came from the parents is what made it special,” McClendon said, “and part of that weirdness was that when I went through a year in which it was one of the toughest and the worst for me, but what other people saw was something they valued or saw as something good enough to go through the process of nominating me.”

The award is in honor of Bob Srack, a 1944 Manhattan High graduate who died in the line of duty for the United States Marine Corps in 1981. The Bob Srack Excellence in Teaching awards were instituted in 1981 when an anonymous donor created it to honor the memory of Srack. The award is given to one elementary teacher and one secondary teacher each year and the recipients receive a $500 check and an engraved marble apple.