Karen Treick concluded her work in the classroom about a week ago.

But the long-time Colony Oak School third-grade teacher still has one more task at hand before settling into retirement.

Treick is in the running for the San Joaquin County Office of Education’s Teacher of the Year.

She’s part of a special event today at the SJCOE Wentworth Education Center, Burwood Auditorium, 2707 Transworld Drive, Stockton, that will also pay tribute to the top Classified Employee.

The celebration begins at 6 p.m., with proceeds going to SJCOE events for next year such as Academic Decathlon, Spelling Bee, Science Olympiad, and Mock Trial, to name a few.

Treick recently decided to call it a career after 24 years with the Ripon Unified School District. She had been at Colony Oak since 1989 and was just nominated by Principal Sylvia Eheler as a San Joaquin A+ Teacher.

SJCOE Special Education instructor Tina Derksen from the McFall School in Manteca along with Tracy High Science teacher Kirk Brown, Jefferson School seventh / eighth grade instructor Christina Orsi, and Christa McAuliffe Middle School History teacher Charles Taylor are also vying for Teacher of the Year.

Meanwhile, Martha Rosas, a para-educator /instructional assistance at Manteca Unified, is among the five finalists for Classified Employee of the Year.

Matt McDaniels (Support Service and Security, Lodi Unified), Betty Wright (Child Nutrition, Lodi Unified), Ed Babakhan (Office and Technical, SJCOE0, and Rodrigo Contreras (Maintenance, Operation and Facilities, Lodi Unified) are the other hopefuls for the top Classified award.

SJCOE along with Premiere Community Credit Union are sponsoring this year’s event honoring classified employees and teachers.