5 Teachers to Receive $10,000 Awards

Five county teachers are the winners of $10,000 awards, recognizing them for their work.

Sponsored by the Amgen Foundation, the recipients of the fourth annual Amgen Award for Teacher Excellence in Ventura County are:

* Keith Barker, who teaches math and physics to 10th- through 12th-graders at Royal High School in Simi Valley.

* Judith Bowers, a first- and second-grade teacher at Meadows School in Thousand Oaks.

* Linda Brug, who teaches language arts and social studies to seventh- and eighth-graders at De Anza Middle School in Ventura.

* Janet Cooper who teaches fourth-graders at Banyan School in Newbury Park.

* Larry Jones, who teaches world history to 10th- and 12th-graders at Moorpark High School.

Each winner will receive a $10,000 cash award and a Steuben apple trophy at a dinner in May at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.

The foundation received more than a 1,000 letters from parents and students nominating 437 instructors.

"We pay tribute to teachers who are performing duties that are vitally important to the future of our nation and to every individual child," said Gordon Binder, Amgen's chairman and chief executive officer.