To Principal Beth Mc- Guire, Sue Katsekas is a hero – a warrior in the fight for student literacy, a champion for kids, an important guide to their parents and an enthusiastic mentor to her Golden Brook School colleagues.

For those reasons, Mc- Guire nominated Katsekas, who leads the school’s Literacy Success Team, a remediation program, to receive the Windham School District’s Employee of the Year Award.

It’s an honor that was bestowed on Katsekas at the school district’s Friday, Feb. 8, deliberative session, where she received a standing ovation from the audience.

Katsekas has spent 18 years at the school working to improve the reading, writing and mathematics literacy of hundreds of children.

“The approaches she uses in her daily lessons with students are many and varied for sure, but always designed to meet the individual needs of the students with whom she works,” wrote McGuire in “A Hero Among Us,” which she read aloud to announce Katsekas’ award.

“Sue does not settle for the fact that a child has just reached grade level in reading,” McGuire told the audience. “She works with them until that solid foundation is built, the child himself or herself truly want to be a reader, and they are ready to soar.”

Literacy Success, an intervention- tutoring program, provides direct instruction in reading and math to students individually or in small groups. Katsekas and the team’s other teachers, Nancy Dorman and Julie Pietrocarlo, reinforce and supplement regular classroom instruction to students who need the extra help.

“Sometimes I think we’re like the snowplows sweeping along behind,” said Katsekas. “These skills have been introduced in the classroom but at a faster pace. We’re going to come sweeping along to make sure everything is there.”

The success of their students, according to Katsekas, relies on three components: a strong remedial program, a strong classroom and supportive parents.

“It’s hard to make great progress without all three pulling together,” Katsekas said.

McGuire credits Katsekas with doing more than keeping parents informed of their child’s progress. She embraces them as partners, and provides them with materials and strategies to use at home, she said.

Katsekas grew up in Gloucester, Mass., and received a bachelor of science degree in elementary education from the University of New Hampshire in 1972. Prior to coming to her job in 1989, she worked for three years at the Windham Cooperative Kindergarten and Nursery and taught nine years in Milford.

She spent some time at home during her career to take care of her two daughters, who are now grown: Leah, who lives in Philadelphia and works in software sales, and Mara, who works for Merrill Lynch in Boston.

The remedial help that Katsekas and her colleagues offer is provided to students in grades 1 and 2. Participants are selected based on classroom assessments, teacher recommendations and test performance. The program seeks to boost self-confidence.

“In a community like Windham, we’ve always been fortunate that we have the resources to reach out,” Katsekas said. “We have the ability to reach out and provide support.”

Her main goal, she said, is to develop a joy for reading in students. “If you have developed that, and you have become a learner, you enjoy reading and you enjoy books, it’s going to fall into place, it’s going to work out for you,” she said.

Whens she won the award, she was given a Zimbabwe sculpture of a master teacher.

“It was a great honor,” said Katsekas, who describes her work as enjoyable and rewarding. “It’s nice to be recognized.”