In addition to a teacher being named Chamblee’s Teacher of the Year, a non-teacher staff member is named the school’s Educational Support Professional of the Year each year. Chamblee staff nominates and votes on candidates. The voting for this year took place in early 2024, after which Christine Holland, the school’s librarian, was named Support Person of the Year for the 2024-2025 school year. 

Holland, who has impacted  Chamblee’s community growth and development for the past 28 years was honored to receive the title. 

“I was very honored. And everyone who was in the same category deserved the award just as much as I did,” said Holland.

As the lone librarian at Chamblee, Holland has many duties and responsibilities. 

“Well, I manage the library, promote reading, have book clubs, and teach different types of classes,” she said.

Even though her workload can be heavy, she finds positive moments every day in her interactions with students. 

“I love when students come in and check out books and get excited about the books and just everything. I enjoy the interaction with the students every day,” said Holland.

In addition to managing Chamblee’s library, Holland before managed a GAP store and taught high school English at The Galloway School. 

“When I managed the Gap store, I enjoyed working with teenagers, so I taught,” said Holland. “After teaching high school English, I decided I wanted to focus more on the library. So I went back to school to be a librarian. I enjoyed reading. I enjoyed teaching reading, so I thought maybe that was a good fit for me,” she said.

Holland’s colleagues could not be more pleased with her receiving the title. Brian Ely, a Chamblee High School social studies teacher, has spent the past 22 years working with Holland here at the school. Ely was not shocked by this news at all. 

“I’m ecstatic for her, she is so deserving. She’s such a wonderful person, a great librarian, and beyond that, with all that she does and in her job as a media specialist, for me, it’s just a great honor for someone who works so hard and is so dedicated as she is and has worked at Chamblee so long too,” said Ely.

Colleague Iris Staten also recognizes Holland’s hard work over the years, stating, 

“She deserves that, she could win it at any year. She’s that valuable of an employee,” he said.

Holland appreciates her shared moments with students and colleagues alike and is ecstatic to continue to promote reading here at Chamblee.

“That’s one of my goals,” said Holland, “is to get more kids to read.”