Five Hobbs teachers earn Veteto Awards
Andy Brosig/News-Sun
It’s not for fame. It’s not for glory. And it sure isn’t for the money.
So why do teachers teach?
“I think teachers teach because they feel like they’re making a difference.”
Those were the words of Mark Veteto on Tuesday, president of the Veteto Foundation he founded almost two decades ago with his father, Burton, as he presented the group’s annual Excellence in Teaching awards to this year’s group of five teachers in the Hobbs Municipal Schools. The awards bring with them a bouquet of flowers, an invitation to the annual Veteto Award Banquet and a stipend of $5,000.
This year’s recipients are:
• Amparo Reynosa, a fourth-grade teacher at Taylor Elementary;
• Bertha Espinoza, a third-grade teacher at Sanger Elementary;
• Adela Prieto, who teaches Special Education at Murray Elementary;
• Marsha Campbell, a third-grade teacher at Murray Elementary, and;
• Lisa Parker, an English-language arts instructor at Houston Middle School.
“Thank you for being the type of person who loves to teach,” Veteto told several of the educators while announcing the awards. “This is our way of telling you we see you and the community’s way of telling you we see you and we appreciate you.”
Amparo Reynosa
Amapro Reynosa has taught for nine years in the Hobbs Public Schools, all at Taylor Elementary. Her early career was working with children, but she made the jump to classroom teacher after the birth of her daughter.
“I had my daughter and I went back to work and I was like, now is the time for me to do it,” Reynosa said. ”I’ve always wanted to teach because I want kids to love school, and I want them to want to come to school.”
Being a recipient of the 2025 Veteto Excellence in Teaching award “reassures me that I made the right choice,” she said. “It confirms I made the right decision in switching careers and coming into teaching.”
Bertha Espinoza
It was a fourth-grade teacher who inspired Bertha Espinoza to embark on a career in education 16 years ago, most of it at the elementary level.
“She was just the best teacher ever,” Espinoza said. “She just inspired me to become a teacher and I always wanted to be like her.”
That was Mrs. Harris — Espinoza couldn’t remember her first name — in another school district. Espinoza’s high school volleyball coach, Melinda Bateman, also had a major impact on her life and her decision to teach.
“She just really pushed me and pushed me,” Espinoza said. “She just inspired me.”
Espinoza keeps coming back to the classroom every day “because I love the kids,” she said.
“I love teaching them. I like seeing the little light bulb go off in their heads when they get it and they just make me happy.,”
Adela Prieto
Adela Prieto described herself as a “hover mom” — the parent who’s constantly in the classroom, helping out any way they can, while her kids were in school. Until one day when the regular teacher had to leave the room and asked her to keep an eye on the class for a few minutes.
It was only for 10 or 15 minutes, Prieto recalled, but when the teacher returned, she asked Prieto, “Why aren’t you on the (substitute teacher) list?”
That was 30 years ago. It wasn’t long before Prieto decided to make the leap and become a classroom teacher herself.
“I thought I’m here, I love what I do, so why not get the degree?” Prieto said.
She started off at New Mexico Junior College, then transferred to what would become University of the Southwest, where she earned her education degree. And then, 25 years ago, she went to work for the Hobbs Municipal Schools and she hasn’t looked back.
Most of that time she’s been a special education teacher, arguably one of the most challenging roles in education. But Murray Elementary principal Nicholas Bartlett told the Foundation group over his 40 years in education Prieto is the best special education teacher he’s ever worked with.
“You have to have a teacher heart,” Prieto said. “Anybody can get a degree. But if you don’t have the heart for it, nothing you read, nothing that is taught you is going to come through.
“You’ve got to want the job with your heart. And you really have to believe that ‘equal’ is not fair, and that ‘fair’ is not equal.”
Marsha Campbell
Marsha Campbell, a third-grade teacher at Murray Elementary, has filled many roles in the Hobbs Municipal Schools, from pre-kindergarten teacher with Head Start to an eight-year stint a Sanger Elementary before moving to Murray 10 yeas ago. But the driving force through it all, Campbell said, was to be able to impact kid’s lives.
“I want to make a difference and just change the trajectory of their future,” she said. Teaching “was a way I could make a difference.
“The kids deserve the best. And even on a bad day, they can make it better.”
And though Campbell, along with the other teachers honored Tuesday, don’t do it for the recognition, being acknowledged for the contributions they make every day is nice, she said.
“I just do what I do whether somebody watches or not,” she said. “I would do it anyway, so (the Excellence in Teaching award) makes me feel very honored. It’s a huge honor.”
Lisa Parker
English-Language Arts instructor Lisa Parker has taught for 29 of her 32 years in Hobbs. The first three years of her career were in Lovington Municipal Schools at Taylor Middle School.
In Hobbs, she’s worked at College Lane Elementary and Jefferson Elementary before moving to the eighth-grade ELA classroom. She was inspired to go into education by two teachers she had growing up.
“Mrs. Harper was my fourth-grade teacher,” Parker said. “She gave me all the confidence I needed to be successful the rest of the way through school.
“And Mr. Drake taught me grammar. All of a sudden it made sense when Mr. Drake taught it.”
Parker said it was almost overwhelming when Mark Veteto and the rest of the group walked into her classroom to announce her award. And she praised Veteto and the rest of the foundation for the work they do recognizing the every-day efforts of teachers in Hobbs.
“It’s very humbling,” Parker said. “There are so many out there who are doing fantastic jobs in classrooms every.
“It’s all about my love of my students and knowing I still have something to share with them. Something that I think will impact them, not just in the classroom, but in their future.”
Veteto Awards selection
This year’s Excellence in Teaching award class were selected from some 60 nominations from around the community. Qualifications for the award include developing a positive attitude in students about school, earning the respect of students, peers and parents and inspiring students who have a range of backgrounds and abilities, according to the foundation website, vetetofoundation.com.
Nominations are sought every year. To date, the foundation has honored about 95 Hobbs educators over 19 years, giving away about $525,000.
It all came to be, Veteto told the News-Sun last year, when he and his father, Burton, were with a crew waiting for equipment to arrive at an oil well they were working on. The group was trading stories of “do you remember this?” and “do you remember that?” to pass the time, Mark Veteto said.
“Someone asked, ‘Can you name all your teachers?’” he said. “There were 15 or 20 of us and almost every one of us remembered all of our teachers, first grade through sixth grade.”
The talk soon turned to how each member of the group had been influenced by at least one teacher in their life.
Burton Veteto, for example, was a football player and had been influenced by his coach.
Mark Veteto said there had been many educators who’d guided him over the years.
“I asked, ‘How do we get to recognize these teachers who are so special?’” Mark Veteto said. “The Veteto Foundation was our idea. We sat down and said, ‘Let’s implement the idea.’”
The visits to the teachers in their classrooms are just the first step in the awards process. The five, 2025 recipients will be honored with a banquet, scheduled for Tuesday, May 13, at the Career and Technical Education Center Hobbs, where they will receive their stipends and the coveted Crystal Apple award, signifying them as Excellence in Teaching award recipients.
