2024 FCPS Teacher of the Year, from Urbana Elementary, dies of cancer
The former Urbana Elementary School teacher was diagnosed in the spring of 2024.
Her son, Anthony Taboas, watched her surprise celebration last year when she won the Teacher of the Year award.
'It was a beautiful ceremony,' he said in an interview on April 24. 'It was just fantastic to see her recognized for the hard work that she's put into herself, into the community and into the school system.'
Ivette Taboas grew up in Miami, Fla., and in 2009, moved to Urbana with her husband, Willie Taboas, and three children — Anthony, Frank and Anais.
She taught at Hillcrest Elementary from 2009 to 2013; at Centerville Elementary from 2013 to 2018; and at Urbana Elementary since 2020 as the multilingual education program teacher.
Ivette Taboas was also an FCPS Itinerant Multilingual Education teacher for four schools from 2018 to 2019.
Anthony Taboas said she spoke English and Spanish, and 'had a huge passion for kids with language barriers.'
'That was something that always drove her,' he said. 'She was always an advocate for that. Always an advocate for diversity and inclusion, and making sure that voices that otherwise wouldn't be heard were heard.'
In April 2024, Ivette Taboas was surprised at Urbana Elementary with the FCPS Teacher of the Year Award.
Tracy Hilliard, the principal of Urbana Elementary School, said in an interview that nominating Ivette Taboas for the award at the school level was 'an easy choice.'
Hilliard added that she was 'sure it wasn't difficult for' FCPS to choose Ivette Taboas as the Teacher of the Year districtwide.
'She always went above and beyond and never had to ask. It was just what she did,' she said. 'You never had to ask, or even if you did ask her, [she would say] 'Absolutely. I can take care of that.''
Hilliard said Ivette Taboas was intermittently working at the school for the past three months, and has been absent for the past three weeks.
On April 25, Urbana Elementary celebrated Disney Day as a tribute to Ivette Taboas' love for Disney. Staff members and students were also invited to wear sandals to school, which Hilliard said was Ivette Taboas' 'daily uniform.'
Hilliard said 'it can be 2 degrees outside' or be 'four feet of snow on the ground,' and the Florida native would still be wearing sandals.
Noemy Merlos, a literacy specialist at Urbana Elementary, worked with Ivette Taboas at Hillcrest, Centerville and Urbana elementary schools.
Merlos said that when she and Ivette Taboas, whom she called a colleague, a friend and family, were at Centerville as multilingual learner program teachers, enough students tested out of the program and numbers 'lowered so much that it didn't warrant two positions anymore.'
'We were doing our job so well, and now we're being separated,' she said.
Merlos said she and Ivette Taboas became co-workers again at Urbana Elementary during the COVID pandemic.
'Once again, we were back together again,' Merlos said. 'It's great when you come to work and you love the people you work with.'
She said Ivette Taboas' Teacher of the Year celebration 'was such a joyous day.' Merlos said she and other teachers helped to decorate Mickey Mouse ears and a sash using a Disney font for Ivette Taboas' special day.
'She always said that we all won that award with her,' Merlos said. 'She was like, 'I don't do this job by myself. I have a team, and you're part of my team.''
Anthony Taboas said the family received Ivette Taboas' diagnosis in the spring of 2024. She had stage 4 pancreatic, endometrial and potentially lung cancer.
Anthony Taboas said that in mid-April, Ivette Taboas was in the chapel at Johns Hopkins Hospital in a wheelchair.
He said there was a woman in the chapel crying after receiving a cancer diagnosis.
'My mom found the strength to get out of her wheelchair, approach this stranger that she doesn't know and wrapped her arms around her and embraced this stranger,' Anthony Taboas recalled. 'She's very much a person that [needed] consoling, and my mom found it in her to pour into that woman.'
He said Ivette Taboas 'was always an advocate and a champion for those around her, whether she knows you or not, to be a level of support, even if she's the one that needs it.'
FCPS Superintendent Cheryl Dyson wrote in a statement that she was 'struck by [Ivette Taboas'] passion for helping children and families who are new to our community and, in many cases, just beginning to learn the English language.'
'Through her empathy, her humility and her kindness, Ms. Taboas helped Urbana Elementary students build the confidence and skills that will lead them to success,' Dyson wrote.
Merlos said Ivette Taboas' impact is 'going to be with us forever.'
'She made such an impression on all of us in a positive way,' she said. 'Her love for life and her love for her profession and her students, it was just amazing.'
Hilliard said Ivette Taboas was instrumental in engaging the parents of multilingual learners at the school and created an initiative called 'Day in the Life of a Multilingual Education Student.'
The initiative is to walk parents through what a day in their child's life would look like at Urbana Elementary.
Hilliard said Ivette Taboas 'was the one that opened that door for us.'
'A light will be missing here at our school. I miss her already,' she said. 'Her spirit and compassion was great, and it's going to be missed but she left a great mark on our staff and our students that were here and got to experience who she was.'
Anthony Taboas said Ivette Taboas had a 'relentless determination for those around her.'
'Everyone in her life that has been touched by her presence is a better person because of it, and that's something that I would very strongly say,' he said.
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