Teacher receives Verner Award
Contributed by the S.C. Arts Commission

Columbia teacher Annette Francis has been selected to receive a 2007 Verner Award, the state's highest award in the arts. A wife, mother, music teacher, chairperson, and an advocate for the arts, Francis has guided the PatriArts program for C.C. Pinckney Elementary School at Fort Jackson in Columbia for more than 15 years.

Under Francis's guidance, C.C. Pinckney was one of the first two elementary schools selected to become S.C. Arts in Basic Curriculum sites in 1989. With her advisory group of teachers, parents, administrators, and local artists, Francis works diligently to secure arts funding and contract artist residencies and performances.

Francis welcomes artists who are able to help C.C. Pinckney students struggling in academic endeavors to "discover their hidden talents and a sense of self- worth."

For these achievements, she was named Teacher of the Year in a Richland One School in 1980, and Teacher of the Year in a Fort Jackson School in 1991.

She has been an active member of the S.C. Music Educators Association since 1977, and often serves as a resource for USC educational interns and practicum students to ensure Pinckney C.C. Elementary's commitment "to prepare aspiring educators to continue the legacy of excellence the school now enjoys."