By: Maria Allard | Roseville-Eastpointe Eastsider | Published April 8, 2026
EASTPOINTE/ROSEVILLE — Every year, the Macomb Intermediate School District holds an Outstanding Teacher of the Year program in which educators at the elementary, middle and high school levels are honored in each Macomb County district.
The teachers — nominated by their peers, parents and students — are evaluated on their teaching style, passion, community focus and more.
Three teachers in Roseville Community Schools and three in Eastpointe Community Schools were selected as the 2025-26 teachers of the year for their dedication to their students and energy in the classroom.
Eastpointe
Eastpointe Community Schools announced its outstanding teachers of the year in the fall. They are Crescentwood Elementary literacy intervention teacher Karen Nardone, Eastpointe Middle School seventh grade math teacher Janae Dent, and Eastpointe High School special education teacher Kira DeFrance.
At the March 23 Eastpointe Community Schools Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Christina Gibson acknowledged the three educators. Gibson also announced that DeFrance was named Macomb County High School Teacher of the Year. DeFrance runs a self-contained cognitively impaired classroom.
“I received a call last week that our high school teacher was selected as the high school teacher of Macomb County. So, I’d like to congratulate Kira DeFrance who was named, out of the entire county, High School Teacher of the Year,” Gibson said.
“Her class runs the recycling program at the high school. She also partners with local businesses and has built a work-based program for our students. They’ve also recently started volunteering at Gleaners (Community) Food Bank distribution,” Gibson said. “What an honor. We could not be happier to celebrate her and her commitment to this organization and her cognitively impaired students.”
At the middle school, Dent is known not only for teaching her students mathematics, but also building relationships with them and seeking new ways to engage with them. According to her colleagues, the educator strives to create a “safe haven” in her classroom and has an “extraordinary rapport with students.” When the school day is done, she still supports students by cheering them on at basketball games, chaperoning school dances and attending parent meetings.
At Crescentwood, Nardone works hard to guide the development and organization of intervention groups for each class so that students receive the support they need. The one-time kindergarten teacher, who has taught in the district for 34 years, also provides direct instruction to small groups and collaborates with classroom teachers. Nardone also serves as a member of Crescentwood’s School Improvement Team, an after-school tutor for the High Dosage Tutoring program and a leader in planning Title I events.
Roseville
This year’s Roseville Community Schools teachers of the year are Julie Grill at the elementary level, Ian Jellis at Roseville Middle School, and Andrea Burns at Roseville High School.
Grill has taught elementary students in Roseville for 34 years. She joined the district as a second grade yearlong substitute at Huron Park, which is now Green Elementary. She also spent one year teaching kindergarten at Alumni and Kaiser. In 1994, Grill moved to Kaiser to teach fifth grade, where she is also a member of the School Improvement Team, an art club sponsor, chair of the Kaiser Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports team, and where she mentors new employees who come to the district.
“She creates a classroom where students feel valued, supported and challenged to grow and she quietly goes above and beyond each day without seeking recognition,” Principal Kelly Grider said in a prepared statement. “Mrs. Grill is incredibly humble and would much rather celebrate her students than stand in the spotlight herself, which makes the honor even more well-deserved.”
Jellis has been influencing students for 23 years as a teacher. He taught fifth and sixth grade at Alumni from 2003 to 2010, and at Kment from 2011 to 2014. In 2015, he worked as the auxiliary teacher for French at the elementary schools districtwide. One year later, he relocated to Roseville Middle School to teach seventh grade English language arts and French. Jellis also has served as safety patrol sponsor, co-sponsored a Young Authors program and sponsored the Foreign Language Club.
Burns has been an educator for 19 years. She started her career on the other side of the state teaching English at Benton Harbor High School for four years, then spent one year as a reading specialist at Muskegon High School. She also taught English language arts for six years at Coldwater High School before serving two years as an assistant principal at Legg Middle School in Coldwater.
In 2019, Burns came to RMS as an assistant principal. She returned to the classroom in 2021, where she teaches English 9 and Advanced Placement literature and composition. She also serves as a mentor to new teachers, is a member of the School Improvement Team, a National Honor Society sponsor, a student/parent Book Club organizer, and a part of the RHS Disciplinary Literacy team.
All the Macomb County educators will be honored at a banquet April 21 at the Palazzo Grande in Shelby Township.