Twin Falls School District’s Burdick receives award from ISU honor society

Janet C. Burdick, Director of Support Services in the Twin Falls School District, was recently chosen as the Professional Award Achievement recipient by the Idaho State University chapter of Kappa Delta Pi, an international honor society dedicated to promoting excellence in, and recognition of, outstanding contributions to education.

Burdick will be honored at a banquet at 7 p.m. Friday, May 11, at the ISU L.E. and Thelma E. Stephens Performing Arts Center in Pocatello.  

Burdick was born in Whittier, Calif. She obtained her undergraduate degree in Spanish at the University of Colorado in 1970. She taught for a year in Nampa. After a four-year hiatus she returned to teaching in Jerome, working as a migrant coordinator/teacher and a high school resource teacher. During that time she earned her master’s degree at ISU in special education.

She moved to the Twin Falls School District as a consulting teacher and served in that capacity for eight years. The next three years she was director of special education in the Buhl School District. She returned to the Twin Falls School District, again as a consulting teacher. For the past four years she has served as director of support services. Burdick has coached age-group swimming as well as the Twin Falls High School swim team.

Burdick has been involved with the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) on both the state and international levels. She was president of the Idaho State Federation and served as president of the International Council, which has a membership of more than 50,000 special educational professionals.  

She is nearing the end of a distinguished career serving children with disabilities in Idaho. The recognitions and distinctions she has earned in and out of the classroom and on the national scene are accomplishments that lift Burdick to the higher level required by this award, said Nyssa Haneveer, ISU Kappa Delta Pi vice president.