UPSEU congratulates member Maria Sau for being named Connecticut’s 2021 Paraeducator of the Year. Each year the the School Paraprofessional Advisory Council present the Anne Marie Murphy Paraeducator of the Year Award to one exceptional paraeducator, narrowed down from about 14,000 public school paraeducators. Maria has been a member of the Windsor BOE Paraeducators unit since 1999 and in her over twenty-years of service to the Windsor Board of Education she has benefited each student she works with. Maria’s principal, Jay Mihalko says “Maria respects, cares for, supports, and empowers every student that she works with … she sees the best in every child and with encouragement and compassion she motivates her students to achieve. Maria driving objective in working with students is “to model and teach equality throughout the year in school and at home so our children can develop positive attitudes of each and every student's racial identity.”