Honoring two teachers who helped shape generations of Bulldogs
(Superintendent Joey Light presenting)
The room was already full of celebration, but for a moment, everything slowed.
As Jill Harris and Cherie Speer walked to the stage at this year’s Bulldogs, Boots & Bling dinner, the crowd rose to its feet. Applause echoed, not just for what they had done, but for who they had been to so many. In that moment, it felt like the entire Wylie community was saying thank you.
Superintendent Joey Light presented plaques that will now hang in the rotunda at Wylie High School — a lasting reminder of two educators whose influence can’t quite be captured in bronze, but comes close.
For 27 years, Cherie Speer made science feel less like a subject and more like a doorway. She believed it wasn’t about formulas or facts, but about helping students discover they could do hard things. Long before lesson plans and labs, her love for learning was sparked by her father — and she spent decades passing that spark along.
(Cherie Spear, left, and Jill Harris, Right)
She adjusted, reworked, and reimagined her teaching year after year, making sure every student felt seen. And while awards are meaningful, what she treasures most are the letters, the visits, the quiet “thank yous” from former students who grew into doctors, mechanics, nurses, and everything in between.
Just down the hall, Jill Harris was building something just as lasting — a classroom that felt like home.
Known lovingly as “Mama Harris,” she taught family and consumer sciences, but her lessons reached far beyond recipes and routines. She showed students how to care, how to serve, and how to show up for others. Whether it was staying late, fixing a uniform, or simply listening, Jill had a way of making every student feel like they mattered.
Her impact didn’t end at graduation. It lives on in kitchens baking bunny cakes, in families built on lessons she once taught, and in the countless students who still carry her voice with them.
Together, their stories remind us of something simple and powerful: great schools are built on great people.
When we honor educators like Cherie Speer and Jill Harris, we’re not just celebrating years of service. We’re celebrating lives changed, confidence built, and futures shaped in ways we may never fully see.
And in a place like Wylie, where community and classrooms go hand in hand, that kind of legacy means everything.
Because when teachers pour their hearts into students, those students carry it forward.
And that’s exactly why — it’s great to be a Wylie Bulldog.
See the video below: