Green Valley High band instructor Teacher of the Year

Benjamin Grove

Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1998 | 11:09 a.m.

Nevada Teacher of the Year Diane Koutsulis traces her love for music back to age 2, the year she won a Lincoln Continental.

The Green Valley band teacher said her parents, immigrants from Greece lining in Chicago, entered her name in a church raffle -- and Koutsulis, just a toddler, won a car.

"My parents sold it right away and when I was six, they bought a Baldwin baby grand piano," Koutsulis said. "From six years old on, I played and played. I loved it."

Koutsulis was named Nevada Teacher of the Year in a surprise ceremony in the Green Valley High School library on Monday. The Teacher of the Year program is sponsored by the Nevada Department of Education, which considered applications from the state's 17 county school districts. Koutsulis will be a contender for the 1999 National Teacher of the Year, competing with 50 master teachers from around the nation.

"I'm very flattered," she told a crowd of teachers, students and officials from the state department of education and the Clark County School District. She said she was genuinely surprised by the honor.

Koutsulis' students, many of whom faithfully attend her 6:15 a.m. marching band practices, said their teacher always pushes them to be better.

"She believes that teenagers can do a lot more than people think," said senior Jed Hoyt, a tuba player. "I really respect that."

Koutsulis began her teacher career in 1982 at Las Vegas High School, building a band program up from 29 to 120 students.

"I was astonished by what happened to the Las Vegas High School band," Clark County Schools Superintendent Brian Cram said.

Koutsulis, now the fine arts department chairperson at Green Valley, began teaching at the school when the building opened in 1991. Since then, the Green Valley band has played at the 1993 Inaugural Parade in Washington, D.C., New Year's Day parades in London and Paris and won a variety of awards at music festivals around the United States.

Koutsulis said she lets two principles guide her teaching: students need to be held to high standards and taught responsibility.

"You can't teach responsibility without giving them responsibility," Koutsulis said. "If you don't give them responsibility, you do them a real disservice."

Koutsulis' mother, Effie Koutsulis, attended the ceremony and recalled the baby grand piano that started it all. She and her husband, a butcher, had little money when they landed in Chicago, she said.

"She would play for a half hour in the morning and a half hour in the evening and then she would go to bed," Effie Koutsulis said. "I'm very, very proud."