A Macomb County educator whose career has spanned four decades has been honored with an Excellence In Education award from the Michigan Lottery.

The award winner, Annette Hobrecht, is the social worker at Keith Bovenschen School, which is a special needs school that services children and adults aged 3 to 26 with cognitive and/or physical impairments. The school is part of the Macomb Intermediate School District.

The Michigan Lottery established the Excellence In Education awards in 2014 to recognize outstanding public-school educators across the state during the school year.

Winners of the weekly award receive a $2,000 cash prize. At the end of the school year, one of the weekly award winners will be selected to receive the Lottery’s Educator of the Year award and will receive a $10,000 cash prize.

Each winner also is featured in a news segment on the Lottery’s media partner stations: WXYZ-TV in Detroit, FOX 17 in Grand Rapids, FOX 47 in Lansing, WNEM-TV in Saginaw, and WWTV-TV in Traverse City. The news segment featuring Hobrecht will air this evening.

Hobrecht says she knew from a young age she wanted to be an educator.

“I wanted to be a special education teacher for as long as I can remember and would even set up a small school in our family basement as a middle and high schooler for the neighborhood children in the summertime. Initially, I became a special education teacher of severely multiply impaired young adults. I then realized my interest was actually to work with the families where they came from, so I set out to become a school social worker. Little did I know 38 years ago that I would get my dream job of being a school social worker and would remain in that position for so long. What keeps me going is the feedback I get from students, staff, and families. My job has allowed me to explore and create a lot of cool programs which support all these different groups.”

Hobrecht was nominated for the award by a friend.

“Annette is a fantastic and talented school social worker. She was president of the Macomb County School Social Workers for six years. Annette has developed, organized, and instituted several innovative support programs for staff, students, parents, and families. These support programs help to open communication to prevent crisis situations from occurring. Annette really puts her heart into her job. She has been a dedicated school social worker for 38 years!”

Holbrecht earned a bachelor’s degree from Wayne State University and a master’s degree from the University of Michigan. She has been an educator for 42 years, the last 38 in her current position.

Excellence in Education award nominees are evaluated on the following criteria:

• Excellence – Their work consistently helps students and/or their schools or school districts advance to higher levels of academic achievement.
• Dedication – They consistently go above and beyond expectations to help students succeed.
• Inspiration – Their work inspires others around them to exceed expectations either academically or professionally.
• Leadership – They demonstrate clear leadership skills in their positions with their school or school districts.
• Effectiveness – The nominee’s work has clear and positive results on the educational advancement of students within the school or school district.