Killeen ISD loves to honor its most outstanding staff members through a twice-monthly award called the STEEL Award.
Any employee can nominate any other employee. A committee determines two honorees a month for October, November, January, February, March and April.
STEEL stands for Supporting the Education and Empowerment of Learners.
This past fall semester, Superintendent King Davis joined a group of senior district leaders, board members and campus staff members in surprising employees with the circular steel plaque as students and staff members cheered their approval.
Below is a review of our fall 2025 winners. We have full stories and videos honoring each.
Also, you will want to check out this new photo album of all of our winners getting surprised:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/killeenisd/albums/72177720331310866
Remember, we will honor another employee later in January and twice a month for the rest of the school year, so keep watching.
October STEEL Winners
Insistent on deflecting praise to his hard-working team members, the lead for Killeen ISD’s property management warehouse is a district STEEL Award winner for the month of October.
Craig Watson has worked in KISD’s property management department 13 years, following 21 years in the US Army and additional work overseas and on Fort Hood in the service of his country.
https://www.killeenisd.org/article/2454286
It doesn’t take long to see why Dorothy Ruffin has always seemed to gravitate toward children and why they appear to gravitate to her.
Kind, warm and visibly caring, Ruffin, a teacher assistant at Hay Branch Elementary School is a Killeen ISD STEEL Award winner for October.
A military child and spouse who worked in several jobs before moving into teaching and then administration found her passion in helping high school students prepare for their future careers.
https://www.killeenisd.org/article/2456179
November STEEL Winners
Killeen ISD Career and Technical Education Coordinator Charlotte Heinze was visibly shocked when the district superintendent with other senior leaders and her closest colleagues honored her with a district STEEL Award for November.
https://www.killeenisd.org/article/2502918
Manor Middle School teacher Summer Williams said colleagues in a former profession kept telling her what her parents had told her for years, that she was naturally gifted as a teacher.
Already armed with a degree in broadcast journalism, she entered a summer teaching program called Teach America and started her new career in the Atlanta area.
Working with a partner educator in an impoverished area, she found a new sense of purpose.
When Williams and her soldier spouse moved to the Fort Hood area, she started teaching at Liberty Hill Middle School.
Now, she is an eighth grade English teacher and instructional coach at Manor Middle School. She is also a KISD STEEL Award winner for the month of November.
https://www.killeenisd.org/article/2528248
January STEEL Winners
Michelle Höffchen, librarian at Willow Springs Elementary School knew as a second-grade student that she wanted to be a teacher.
For 19 years, she taught mostly at the elementary level in her native Louisiana before moving with her family to Copperas Cove, where she eventually shifted to the middle school level and three years ago made another big switch to lead the library at Willow Springs in Killeen ISD.
Creative, hard-working and deeply committed to helping all students learn, Principal Anika Stewart said of Höffchen, “She is a true leader and educator on our campus – someone who inspires others by modeling positivity, collaboration and innovation.”
Höffchen is a KISD STEEL Award winner for the month of January.
https://www.killeenisd.org/article/2572814
More to come.