Lawrence Schools Foundation awards $5,000 Special Award for Dedication to Education to Lawrence High School teacher Charlie Lauts

Lawrence High School teacher Charlie Lauts reacts to receiving the Lawrence Schools Foundation's Special Award for Dedication to Education on Friday, Dec. 17, 2010. The ,000 check was presented to Lauts during finals on the last day of class before winter break.

Lawrence High School teacher Charlie Lauts hugs her husband Tom Lauts just after receiving the ,000 Special Award for Dedication to Education from the Lawrence Schools Foundation on Friday, Dec. 17, 2010.

Shooting trebuchets in the hallway outside Room 150 at Lawrence High School would just have to wait.

Students in Charlie Lauts’ college prep engineering class managed to delay their final exams Friday morning so that the district superintendent, the Lawrence Schools Foundation president, parents of former students and nearly two dozen other officials could squeeze into their room — including one administrator toting an oversized check — for a welcome celebration.

That would be handing over $5,000 to Lauts, winner of the foundation’s Special Award for Dedication to Education, given annually to an educator who does whatever it takes to see that all students learn.

“Holy c—!” Lauts exhaled, as reality set in. “I don’t know how to react. I seriously don’t even know how to act right now. My God.”

Visitors smiled. Her husband offered a tissue. And students welcomed the prospect of setting aside their counterweighted catapults, their projects assembled from 20 popsicle sticks, a paper clip and 24 inches of string to see just how far and how accurately they could move an object under a set of carefully controlled conditions.

Semi-controlled, anyway.

“How am I supposed to give a final now?” she said. “They have to shoot a trebuchet. We have to go out in the hallway and launch a marble … “

Lauts has been teaching such classes in industrial arts for 24 years at Lawrence High, encouraging students to build, to think, to imagine through classes in design, in architecture and engineering.

Kayla Hicks, a junior, had dreamed of being an anesthesiologist before enrolling in one of Lauts’ classes. Now she’s planning to attend Kansas State University, become an environmental engineer and someday ensure that everyone can breathe easy when they walk into a building.

“I want to work for the government and check building codes and make sure that things are right for the environment,” she said. “I love this class.”

Lauts is just the kind of teacher all students need at some point during their high school careers, said Patrick Kelly, the school district’s career and technical education specialist.

“While a fantastic role model for all of her students, Charlie’s impact on female students interested in nontraditional fields is inspiring,” Kelly said. “She is a teacher for whom we need to build larger classrooms and add hours to the school day, so that every student can have a chance to work and excel under her instruction.”

This is the fourth year for the Special Award for Dedication to Education, given through the foundation by a group of anonymous donors. The donors are sons and daughters of members of another anonymous group, known as The Bobs, that presents an annual $10,000 Excellence in Teaching Award in May.