5 Area Teachers Go to the Head of the Class for Work Excellence : Education: An Amgen Inc. foundation gives $10,000 awards to winners nominated by students, colleagues, friends and family.

Like many schoolteachers, Willis Naysmith does not venture into the classroom for prize money or public recognition. But after 41 years in front of a classroom of students, he got a little of both.

Naysmith, 58, joined four other Ventura County teachers Monday in winning a $10,000 award for teaching excellence. It is the second year that Amgen Inc., the Thousand Oaks-based pharmaceutical company, has granted the awards through an affiliated nonprofit foundation.

“The greatest reward is not money,” said Naysmith, who began his career in 1952 and continued teaching from a wheelchair after a stroke left him partially paralyzed in 1978. “The greatest reward is seeing students make something of themselves.”

Nearly 560 educators in Ventura County and one bordering school district in Los Angeles County were nominated for the award by students, colleagues, friends or family. An anonymous panel of three community leaders chose the winners, Amgen officials said.

Showing perhaps why she was selected for the award, Westlake High School science teacher Nancy Munguia-Bowman said she plans to use a portion of her winnings to buy cadavers for her students.

Three years ago, Munguia-Bowman expanded the school’s advanced physiology course to allow senior class students to get hands-on experience with cadavers instead of just watching a doctor or teacher wield a scalpel.

But to get the new class going, Munguia-Bowman has to volunteer her teaching time during her hourlong break and has helped organize fund-raising drives to finance the course.

As she has done in the past, she planned to dip into her purse to buy four new cadavers at about $650 each for the fall semester, hoping that fund-raising proceeds would reimburse her. Now, at least, she knows she can come up with the cash.

“This money could not have come at a better time,” said Munguia-Bowman, 40, a Somis resident.

Under the Amgen Award for Teacher Excellence, the winners can spend the money any way they choose.

“If you had read the (nomination) letters I’ve read, you’d wonder whether $10,000 is enough,” said Daryl Hill, the company’s vice president of quality assurance.

Thousand Oaks resident George Hees originally thought that the award money had to be used in his third-grade classroom at Lupin Hill Elementary School in the Las Virgenes Unified School District, he said.

“I thought, ‘This is going to buy a lot of science and math materials,’ but when they said it was for me, I couldn’t believe it,” said Hees, 41, who plans to pay off personal debts with the winnings.

Los Cerritos Intermediate School teacher Carol Philips said the money will probably go toward her daughter’s college education, which begins next fall.

“It’s a humbling experience to have won,” said Philips, a Newbury Park resident.

Teacher Jack Cheney, director of art therapy and the fine arts discovery program at Camarillo State Hospital, said he also plans to use his winnings to cover some bills.

But more importantly, he said, the award reflects the growing public recognition of his program and helps society understand the unique talents of mentally ill and disabled students, Cheney said.

“Through the arts program, we find . . . these students can be very creative and expressive and have aspects of their personalities which compensate for the weaknesses we otherwise might find ourselves focusing on,” Cheney said.

The winners will receive their cash awards and a crystal trophy in the shape of an apple at a private ceremony Saturday night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library near Simi Valley.