BUCKEYE — A Buckeye school principal thought Friday was just another normal day at her elementary school until a visitor from California uttered her name for a national teaching award.
Every student at Buckeye Elementary filed into the gym on Friday under the impression the assembly was to celebrate their recent academic success.
“You’re all doing so well in your studies,” said State Superintendent Tom Horne.
Before the pandemic, Buckeye Elementary had a failing grade as a school.
The red mark left students and teachers discouraged, with a long list of needed improvements.
But Buckeye Elementary had a plan.
“I came to tell you a secret,” said a representative from the Milken Educator Awards.
If being a grade school instructor wasn’t hard enough, over the past two years Principal Megan Brown navigated through the pandemic with the mantra: ‘Educate all students.”
She secured federal school improvement grants to fund interventions and she was able to retain 90% of her teachers at a time when keeping teachers in the classroom is no easy task.
There were just a few ingredients that made up the recipe to help bring Buckeye Elementary from an F to a B.
With her whole family watching, including her parents, Principal Brown had no idea she would get the recognition known as 'the Oscars for teaching' called the Melkin Award. It's a national award given to the best educators in the country.
Principal Brown will get an all-expense paid trip to Los Angeles to meet with a network of prior winners.
She’s also given an unrestricted $25,000.
Trying to hold back tears, Brown's first remarks after winning gave credit back to the teachers. She asked each student in the room to look at their teacher and thank them. Then she told students to pat themselves on the back for the adversity they overcame to take their school out of a failing ranking to be on that is on the path to excelling.
When asked, “What are you doing that’s right?” Brown didn’t hesitate when she said, “Teacher collaboration. My teachers have to work together. They have to commit that every single child on this campus is their child. It’s not just in the four walls of their classroom. Vulnerability. Able to say I didn’t do so well today what can I do tomorrow that better for my students. And we work as a family. We love on each other; we fight with each other. We have those tough conversations but at the end of the day it’s all about student achievement and student growth.”
Brown says some of that money will go to take her family on a vacation.
In her last remarks, Brown said there’s still work to be done but added, “I’m so proud of my school,” as she held back tears.