Spencer native earns Buffett teaching award

(Photo submitted) William "Bill" Scarborough, left, with billionaire Warren Buffett during a recent awards ceremony held in Omaha in which Scarborough received an Alice Buffett Outstanding Teacher Award for 2008.

Initially, William "Bill" Scarborough believed the call notifying him that he was being honored with a prestigious teaching award was a joke.

"I didn't believe it. I thought it was a joke because it's such an outstanding award for a teacher or an educator to receive," the physical education instructor at Burke High School in Omaha said of the Alice Buffett Outstanding Teacher Award for 2008 he received recently.

Of the approximately 1,500 letters received nominating 466 teachers for the honor this year, Scarborough was one of 15 instructors in the Omaha Public Schools chosen to receive the award.

Scarborough, who will be marking his 32nd year with Omaha Public Schools in 2008-09, has amassed 26 years at Burke and five years at the Horace Mann Center for ninth graders. At Burke High School, he serves as a physical education teacher and the girls head cross country and track coach. Within the coaching ranks, Scarborough is commonly referred to as "Coach Scar."

An excerpt from one of his nomination letters read: "Coach Scarborough is an educator and coach who really makes a difference in the lives of his students. ... His student athletes learn valuable lessons about setting goals both on and off the sports field, and about the need to work hard to achieve these goals. He leads by example, demonstrating the importance of character and discipline on a daily basis."

The 53-year-old native of Spencer, a 1973 Spencer High School graduate, was honored during a ceremony at the Kiewit Plaza in Omaha. It was there, when he was presented with a $10,000 check, a medallion and 500 $1 gift certificates from McDonald's, that the reality of the situation and honor sunk in. The awards were given out by the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation.

Scarborough indicated he and his wife, Mary Ellen, an elementary school principal, are planning to build a home in Papillion, Neb. with the money he received. Of the gift certificates he was awarded, the teacher chuckled as he reported, "I'm not a fast food guy, so I've given a lot to the girls cross country team and some of their parents, who nominated me."

When asked what he believes sets him apart from others as a teacher, Scarborough replied the fact that he can get along with anybody.

"And one of my goals is to treat everybody the same, whether they're No. 1 or No. 100," he said.

The high school coach also mentioned it was his former coaches in Spencer -- the late Bill Chambers, Glenn Brandsma, Roger Schultz and Bill Cook -- who influenced him to enter the ranks of teachers and coaches. Of Chambers in particular, Scarborough said he was "the one who would give our buns a paddle if we needed it to keep us in line and to keep us straight."

Scarborough's mother, the late Clara "Jean" Oestenstad, resided in Spencer. His sister, Karen Olin, lives in rural Royal. He and Mary Ellen Scarborough have two daughters: Kim Nelson, a physician assistant at Midwest Neurosurgery, and Kari Scarborough, a second grade teacher at Black Elk Elementary at Millard Public Schools in Omaha.