VILONIA — Vilonia High School business teacher Debby Mauldin was supposed to be talking about her own award, but she kept bragging on her co-workers’ accomplishments.
“We have so many resources here,” she said, reeling off names of other teachers and administrators who have received recognition.
Mauldin was named Secondary Business Teacher of the Year by the Arkansas Business Education Association on Aug. 3 in Hot Springs at the organization’s annual conference, part of which she missed.
She had knee surgery for a torn meniscus the day the award was presented.
“I did not know I was receiving it. I was having to have surgery, and I was focusing on that,” she said.
Mauldin, 57, is starting her 20th year in the Vilonia School District, and her 22nd in education.
A graduate of Conway High School, she credits her mother and two former teachers for inspiring her to go into education, albeit at a later age than some people.
Her mother was an accountant, and her father, a barber, died at age 38 from complications of diabetes. Mauldin was the fourth of five children — she had three brothers and an older sister. Having those three brothers is why she said she wrote a grant and started the Vilonia Arkansas Youth Sports Shooting Team. She served as its coach for the past six years, and this year, she’s an assistant.
“I learned hard work from my mother,” Mauldin said. “Mother taught me perseverance; Mother taught me how to work.”
A teacher who influenced Mauldin was Estelene Duke, a medical-professions teacher at Conway High School.
“She was so good to me, and I wanted to become a teacher because of her,” Mauldin said.
Also, Dale Thompson, her agriculture teacher, made a big impact. “He pushed me,” Mauldin said. “I loved the animal-science class. I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian.”
She had horses, chickens and a goat named Nelson at home.
“I just loved being around animals,” she said.
Mauldin said that in 1976 she became the first female FFA vice president at Conway High School, and Thompson encouraged her to try public speaking. Mauldin was on the parliamentary procedure team and one of the few females in the state on the forestry judging team.
She went to the University of Central Arkansas in Conway right out of high school, but she and her husband, Carl, got married a year after she started college. She stayed home with their two daughters until they were in kindergarten; then Mauldin worked in the Faulkner County Day School office in Conway before going back to school after 15 years of marriage. She received a Target scholarship and earned a master’s degree from the University of Central Arkansas by her third year of teaching.
She had decided to become a teacher during her hiatus from school, and because she helped in her mother’s accounting business, Mauldin chose business.
“It seemed to come natural,” she said.
Her first teaching job was at the Arkansas School for the Deaf in Little Rock, a position Mauldin said she never would have dreamed she would have.
She had taken American sign language at UCA; “I loved it,” she said.
Mauldin taught high school business and vocational classes for two years at the Arkansas School for the Deaf. It was “total immersion,” she said, which meant she used sign language exclusively.
She also became a master teacher, and she encountered Thompson, her former teacher, again. He was working at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and was hired by the state Department of Education to oversee the program through which she was becoming a master teacher at the School for the Deaf.
“He said, ‘I knew you’d be a teacher, but I thought you’d be an agri teacher,’” she said. “I thought it was so neat to be back with him.”
“I was the job-placement person, so I took them to their positions and would check in with them,” Mauldin said.
One student was deaf and blind, and Mauldin said she learned a lot from the young woman, including tactile sign language — using touch.
“Now my grandchildren are showing an interest. They’ll say, ‘Granny, how do you sign this?’” she said. They always use the sign for, “Bye, I love you,” she said.
Mauldin had done her student teaching in Room 108 at Vilonia High School, and a position opened 20 years ago — teaching business in Room 108.
She’s in a different room now, and teaching business obviously has evolved since she started.
“Technology is constantly changing. I’m blessed to work in a district that tries to stay on top. I’ve always had support from the administration, the superintendent and principals,” she said.
Mauldin said Superintendent David Stephens “has supported us from day 1.” Vilonia High School Principal Matt Sewell “has supported me in any endeavor I have taken on,” she said.
Stephens said Mauldin’s award “is a very well-deserved honor.”
“I’m very excited for her, and I’m thankful she’s a part of our team. She’s a great person and works very hard to do what’s best for her students,” he said.
One of Mauldin’s students, junior Skylar Taylor, came to ask Mauldin a question. When she left, Mauldin sang the student’s praises. The young woman is the new Distributive Education Cooperative Association president, Mauldin said.
Taylor, 16, who was working on a DECA poster, also gave high praise to Mauldin, who was out of earshot.
“She is my favorite teacher — ever since I have been in her class,” Taylor said. “She has inspired me to be a better person, and she has helped me in everything I do
educationally.”
Mauldin said DECA, the four-year-old marketing club, gives students the opportunity to compete globally. At a recent state competition, nine qualified to compete at the International Career Development Conference. “We’re making strides,” she said.
“I want to help these kids see there are so many opportunities,” Mauldin said. “The sky is the limit, and I want them to know there are teachers who truly care about them. That may sound dorky, but I truly care about them. Everybody here does.”
Mauldin recalled what her UCA adviser told her.
“He said, ‘Who was your best teacher? Who was your worst teacher? Those are the two you’re going to remember,’” Mauldin said. “I don’t want to be that worst teacher; I want to be that best teacher.’”
This year, she has an award on her desk that says so.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.