JP Fugler, the Lindale High School speech and debate teacher, poses with members of his 2018 state championship. Fugler was recently named Teacher of the Year by his district.

When the pandemic forced schools to close their doors earlier this year, first-grade teacher Megan Fadal, of Velma Penny Elementary in Lindale, knew she had to find a way to see her students.

“It was super hard those first two weeks,” Fadal explained. “I was crying, honestly. I just wanted to be with them more than anything.”

So she brainstormed a way to make it happen.

Soon, she plotted all 21 of her students’ addresses on a map, loaded up her SUV with decorations and dozens of picture books and set off in her very own makeshift roaming library.

Fadal would pull up to a student’s house, pop open her trunk, and have students squirt their hands with sanitizer before they got the chance to select a favorite book or two.

“Oh my goodness, the kids were just thrilled,” Fadal said. “They were so excited to see me.”

Fadal loved it, too.

“Those couple of days I got to see them were just so fun,” she said.

Meanwhile, JP Fugler, the Lindale High School speech and debate teacher, was struggling to help his students navigate the height of competition season.

“This (pandemic) all came to a head when we were on our way back from El Paso,” Fugler explained. “That competition was the very last thing we got to do.”

Most other organizations and competition groups at Lindale made the tough decision to cancel practices and all upcoming events owing to all the uncertainty.

But not Fugler.

He and his team continued preparations in ways that would keep students safe and healthy, and went on to participate in three national tournaments, albeit virtually, throughout the remainder of the school year.

“I can’t take credit for it myself,” Fugler said. “That happened thanks to the great community of speech and debate coaches across the nation.”

Humble as they both may be, for their passion, dedication and perseverance as educators – especially amid the pandemic – both Fugler and Fadal were named Teacher of the Year during last week’s “Back to School” assembly at Lindale ISD.

Fugler, a nine-year teaching veteran who has received previous awards for his work in education, said this honor proves especially meaningful to him.

“I’ve been very fortunate so far in my career,” Fugler said. “But to receive this award from my district feels even more special, because it shows they really recognize what I’m doing.”

He believes every teacher in the district has been working very hard, and that “so many of our teachers are just as worthy, if not more,” he said.

“This is a major surprise,” Fugler admitted. “For me it just meant that it was recognition: They see me, and they take a lot of pride in our academics here at Lindale.”

Fugler first pursued teaching specifically because his own experience in speech and debate — a class in which he was enrolled by accident — was so transformative, he said.

“I had Tourette’s growing up, and that very much so impacted my life,” Fugler explained. “I had a talent that I didn’t know was there, and for me, it felt like being given a real gift being part of the speech and debate program. I just wanted to give that back.”

In recent years, he’s enjoyed witnessing the adaptability of his students, and said he places particular emphasis on fact-finding and ethical research in this new age of information.

“Our world is changing very quickly, and that seems like an understatement this year,” Fugler said. “That we’re able to continue communication, whether it’s virtual or face to face, just shows how important this subject area is to all of us.”

One of his favorite projects in recent years involved walking his seventh-period class through a Harvard journalism course.

“That was a really neat experience,” Fugler said. “Here we were in this small town of Lindale, Texas, working through a course by such a prestigious institution.”

“Getting to watch students connect those dots …” was very special, Fugler said.

Fadal, too, loves to see the light bulbs go off when her students understand a new topic or idea.

Before the school closures, she would often stay long after the dismissal bell to transform her classroom, be it with caution tape and student-created bats that hung from the ceiling or with blacklights and glow sticks, in order to ensure her students were fully engaged in their learning.

And she wasn’t afraid to be silly — in December, donning a full Santa costume, beard and all, just to read a holiday story to her students.

Of course, she didn’t end her outreach with the roaming library.

Throughout the months of distance learning, she met virtually with her kiddos every weekday at 9 a.m., sent out tons of “happy mail,” hosted a virtual “Fort Night” party where students built their own forts out of pillows and blankets, and she even drove by student homes waving posters that detailed what she missed most about “each and every one of them.”

“I went into education because I just knew that I wanted to work with kids and I just really wanted to be a difference maker, even if it’s with 5-year-olds,” Fadal said.

To be honored with such an award thus means the world to her, she said.

“I am just so happy, so appreciative,” she said. “Lindale is the most amazing school district, and I’m just completely overwhelmed, humble and blessed by it.”

Other Lindale ISD honorees included Ronda Knight, of the transportation department, and Linda Garza.

Knight received the Tommy Mallory award, created in honor of a longtime idealized bus driver, for her exemplary performance with the district, a release stated.

Garza was named the proud recipient of the Willie Ruth Blue award, an award created to honor “one of the most loved staff members of LISD,” the release said.

Fadal and Fugler both received a $500 check from the Lindale ISD Education Foundation, sponsored by the Cooperative Teachers Credit Union, as part of the honor.

Lindale ISD joins Tyler, Whitehouse, Chapel Hill, Winona, Arp and many other East Texas districts in opening Wednesday for the first day of school.