Michele Brezovec of South Meadow Middle School in Peterborough has been selected as one of 15 semifinalists for the 2025 New Hampshire Teacher of the Year Award, presented by the New Hampshire Department of Education. 

Brezovec, who has been an educator for 27 years, will retire at the end of this school year. For 22 years, she has run South Meadow’s Expanded Horizons Program (EHP), in which students explore skills not covered in other curriculum areas. 

“Back in 2002, (former principal and current School Board member Dick) Dunning asked me to create an enrichment program that every student in the school could take part in,” Brezovec recalled. “I looked at what could benefit the students with different interests – the one who were interested in STEM, the ones who were interested in art, the writers – and I came up with classes to meet those interests.” 

Brezovec developed five classes for the first year of the EHP program: peer mediation, web design, a student newspaper, a robotics team and “Morning Announcements.” Over the years, “Morning Announcements” has evolved into a video production, and is now available to the South Meadow community on YouTube.

“I have a green room right in my classroom, and the kids draw all the background cards by hand. They plan the wirecast every day; they organize everything. It’s really fun to see them evolve,” Brezovec said.

EHP’s current offerings include “Morning Announcements,” 3D printer design, photography, yearbook and the robotics team, which has been running for 22 years.  Brezovec notes that EHP was an early adapter in 3D printer design education.

“I wasn’t sure about 3D printing as a class, but then we beta-tested a 3D printing curriculum from Print Lab, and I learned there is so much more to it, ” Brezovec said. 

Brezovec recalled that one year, the robotics team was assigned a research project on the topic of education, and students researched 10 to 15 middle schools in all 50 states to see if they could find another program like EHP.

“They did not find any other program like ours,” Brezovec said. “The kids were supposed to describe their ideal school, and they when they talked about our program, the judges didn’t believe the program really existed.” 

About 175 students currently participate in EHP. Brezovec also teaches science and engineering units with the entire fifth through seventh grades over the course of the year. She said she is grateful for the support of the entire SMS staff, who all work together to enable the EHP program to happen. 

“It’s been a good 27 years. I’m very fortunate that I have had this position,” Brezovec said. “I’ve had the luxury of growing with the program, learning the new technology and getting to see the directions the kids want to go in, meeting their needs. It’s been a lot of work, but it’s been a lot fun.” 

Brezovec will speak at the semifinalist competition for Teacher of the Year on July 11.