Newport High seniors honor longtime ag teacher with yearbook dedication

Newport High School’s Class of 2026 used its senior banquet to put a public spotlight on Deborah Stevens, the CTE animal and plant sciences teacher whose work has helped shape the school’s agricultural program for years. The seniors dedicated their yearbook to Stevens, then presented her with a planter filled with cards from classmates and colleagues and said they plan to create a garden outside the agricultural building in her name.

The gesture carried weight well beyond a single end-of-year tribute. Stevens has been part of Newport’s agricultural education program for at least 20 years, and the National FFA Organization previously described her as a horticulture and landscape design teacher and FFA advisor who had helped more than 2,000 students. In a school setting where relationships often drive both academic confidence and career direction, that kind of long-term presence gives students a steady adult advocate and a familiar face in a changing high school landscape.

The dedication also landed at a time when Newport has been investing heavily in that part of campus. District materials say the Newport School District completed a major renovation and expansion of the Sugar River Valley Regional Technical Center, including a new agricultural building and greenhouse. The project, described as a roughly $15 million upgrade, was intended to modernize the CTE program and address earlier space and equipment limits, with part of the work funded through the federal Perkins Grant program.

For Newport High, the senior class’s tribute turned that capital investment into something personal. The planter of cards from students and staff made Stevens’s influence visible in the same place where her teaching happens, connecting the building improvements with the people who make the program work. That matters in a district where career and technical education depends on continuity, hands-on instruction and the kind of mentoring that often keeps students engaged long after a class period ends.

The school’s May 21 update also noted another academic milestone inside the building. High school science teacher Ryan Duke successfully defended his thesis on May 19. Dartmouth Engineering identified his research as “Novel Methods for Image Guided Neurosurgery,” describing the work as involving novel imaging systems and animal models for image-guided neurosurgery.

Taken together, the updates show Newport High ending the school year with more than graduation logistics and final exams. The senior tribute to Stevens, along with Duke’s thesis defense, points to a school culture that is still rewarding long service, student loyalty and advanced academic work inside one of Sullivan County’s most important secondary schools.