Dennis Minnis

Dennis Minnis

Dennis Minnis, a physical education teacher at North Bullitt High School (Bullitt County), has been named the 2016 Elementary School Physical Education Teacher of the Year by the Kentucky Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance (KAHPERD).

Minnis spent 12 years at Bullitt County’s Maryville Elementary School before moving to North Bullitt High this summer.

“I am humbled to receive such a prestigious award,” Minnis said. “I work with so many incredible teachers, students and support staff. This award is dedicated to the staff of Maryville, the kids that I have worked with, and to the school system as a whole for supporting me in the small things that I am allowed to do.”

Minnis earned a physical education degree from Lee University in 1998, followed by a master’s degree from Indiana Wesleyan University in 2006. He began teaching in 1999 in Sand Mountain, Ala., and later taught in Cleveland, Tenn., and in Bardstown, where he coached the Nelson County High School cross country team for three years.

“It was through the lives of my PE teachers in Nelson County that I felt the call to become a physical education specialist,” he said. “I watched how they impacted kids’ lives through PE and I decided that I wanted to do the same.”

Minnis has taught physical education and health at Maryville Elementary from 2004 through spring 2016. He started Maryville’s first cross country and chess programs, with both programs ranked in the top 10 in Kentucky.

He teaches freshman boys health, physical education and bodybuilding at North Bullitt High.

He will be honored Nov. 13 at KAHPERD’s annual convention in Lexington.