Beloved teacher Kimberly Willoughby began her time at BWE as the RTI teacher. Her extensive experience in Guided Reading gave her the platform to influence and grow our language arts teachers. She was instrumental in building the instructional resources in our Guided Reading Library before taking a position on our first grade team.

Kim loved teaching and knew that reading was the most important skill needed to equip her young readers in finding their own future strengths and talents. When Kim shared new authors with her students, she would spend weeks studying each book and connecting the literature to every facet of the curriculum.

After school hours, Kim never stopped teaching! So many BWE teachers have memories of her “after school chats” where she would teach us about education, reading and most importantly, life. From crawling around the library floor searching for her next author study to afternoon coffee breaks in a colleague’s classroom, Kim reached all of our hearts and made us better people whether you were a student or an adult.

Even during those months of illness when she had to retire from BWE, Kim would continue to bring her love of reading to our students by volunteering to read aloud her favorite stories in our classrooms. So, it was only fitting, that the BWE staff would work together to find a way to honor Kim for her commitment to teaching and dedication to our BWE students.

Before her passing, the staff was able to celebrate Kim and her family at the unveiling of Kim’s Little Library and the Kim Willoughby Scholarship Fund created to award former BWE students with money to begin their college careers.

After Kim passed with such dignity and grace, BWE teachers continued to fund this scholarship each year in April. With future financial support of the BWE Scholarship Fund, Kim’s legacy continues on to make “BWE the Best Place to Be” and the foundation of future innovators and leaders of our world.