Meet Mr. Barringer, The 2025 Exceptional Teaching Award Recipient

Great Hearts Arizona has named Maryvale Prep science teacher Tom Barringer as its 2025 Exceptional Teaching Award recipient, recognizing his outstanding dedication and impact within the charter network’s classrooms.

Barringer’s role at Maryvale  Prep reads more like a grocery list rather than a simple title. “I have taught everywhere from 7th grade up to 10th grade science. I’m teaching a logic and computation class now which involves some philosophy which is great. I also teach exercise science here for 9th through 12th graders, like a P.E. class for a 7th period extra class at the end of the day,” explained Barringer. “And I DJ the proms and the homecomings here, which I’ve gotten into. I used to do it back in college, but that’s been a lot of fun to get involved with some of the dances here. Coaching is the other big portion that I do here year-round, really, even in the summers. We’re doing off-season work for football and track and field, the two big ones and then powerlifting in the winter as well.”

When you see Barringer in his element at the academy, interacting with students and colleagues, it’s hard to imagine him doing anything else. But surprisingly, teaching was not his first chosen profession. “The more serious career that I tried to pursue was zookeeping, which I was in for a number of years working at the St. Louis Zoo and the Peoria Zoo in Peoria, Illinois,” he shared. “I had great times there, great experiences. It’s a great profession, a lot of fun, but just wanted to experience more human connection.”

Barringer’s parents remember when gave them the news that he wanted to teach. “It was a bit of a surprise to us at Thanksgiving of his senior year when he came home and said, ‘I think I’m called to serve people more than animals,’” shared his dad, Dave Barringer.

But they were both thrilled for him. “My parents were both teachers,” shared his mom, Mary Ellen Barringer. “Unfortunately, my dad, who had spent his whole career in education, left us long before Tom was even born, but I’m sure that he’s up there in heaven cheering him on as he does his daily work.”

Barringer has a passion for science, which he shares with his students every day, hoping to spark that same love and curiosity for the natural world in his students. But his passion for athletics comes in at a close second. “He always loved anything with the ball in it, whether it was throwing a tennis ball around the house or eventually joining the basketball team,” recalled his dad. “And then he played high school football and baseball and then in college went on to become a punter kicker for the football team. He loved the team environment and being part of a team.

In 2022, after the second year of their tackle football program, The Maryvale Prep Matadors, under the leadership of Coach Barringer, brought home a CAA Division State Championship. “I consider that one of the, you know, higher moments of my career,” he said. “I’ll never forget, you know, being down there in Mesa and seeing the field goal go through as time expires and seeing the joy and the happiness on a lot of these athletes’ faces and my coaches.”

In his personal life, Barringer will soon be moving out of his current home, shared with roommates who also teach at Maryvale Prep, as he begins married life with his soon-be-wife, Megan Fischer, who admires his commitment to his students. “He’s really proud to work here and it’s really evident in the way that the students talk about him and how the other teachers talk about him.”

Barringer is humbled by the attention directed toward him, but he is appreciative of the renewed focus on the often-under-valued vocation of teaching. “To know that the work I’m doing is helping is really the big pull I get out of winning this award,” he shared. “Because at the end of the day, I’m getting recognized because people are seeing the positive help that comes from my teaching, my coaching, my DJing, whatever it is. I wouldn’t be getting recognition if it wasn’t for good work being done in the community.”

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