DCPS celebrated the District’s top teachers, leaders and school communities Monday, March 13 at the seventh annual “Standing Ovation” awards at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Northwest.
City officials, corporate sponsors and business leaders joined nearly 2,000 educators and their families and friends to honor excellence in education. The eight “Excellence Award” winners and 29 “Rubenstein Award” winners are individuals and school communities from across DCPS, who were honored with $230,000 worth of cash prizes, courtesy of Alice and David M. Rubenstein.
Nominations for Standing Ovation awards — sponsored in conjunction with the D.C. Public Education Fund — are received throughout the school year from parents, teachers and community members.
The honorees included:
Principal of the Year: Anita Berger, Principal, Banneker High School
Teacher of the Year: Jan Schuettpelz, Science Teacher, Deal Middle School
School Staff Member of the Year: Burt Lancaster, Custodial Foreman, Beers Elementary School
Excellence in Classroom Innovation: David Gesualdi, Physical Education & Health Teacher, Walker-Jones Education Campus (Gesualdi now teachers at MacFarland Middle School and Roosevelt High School)
Excellence in Service: Ann Brogioli, Social Worker, Hart Middle School (Brogioli now works at Watkins Elementary School)
Excellence by an Academic Leadership Team: Bancroft Elementary School
Excellence in Family Engagement: Stanton Elementary School
Excellence in School Innovation: Truesdell Education Campus
Recipients of the 2016 Rubenstein Awards for Highly Effective Leadership:
Eric Bethel, Principal, Turner Elementary School
Maurice Kennard, Principal, Brightwood Education Campus
Kathryn Larkin, Principal, H.D. Cooke Elementary School
Aimeé Cepeda, Principal, River Terrace Education Campus
Bruce W. Jackson, Assistant Principal, Cardozo Education Campus
Tiffany Johnson, Assistant Principal, Whittier Education Campus
Anna Krughoff, Assistant Principal, Marie Reed Elementary School
Diedre Neal, Assistant Principal, Deal Middle School
Recipients of the 2016 Rubenstein Awards for Highly Effective Teaching Recipients:
Milton Bryant, Math Teacher, Ketcham Elementary School
Mary Clayman, ELA Teacher, Eaton Elementary School
James Edwards, Music Teacher, Stuart-Hobson Middle School
Aneesah Saleem, Pre-K Teacher, Hendley Elementary School
Sharon Scholem, Pre-K Teacher, Key Elementary School
Jen Wang, Chinese Teacher, McKinley Technology High School
Bobbie Verdegaal, Science Teacher, Cardozo Education Campus (and 2016 DCPS New Teacher of the Year)
Recipients of the 2016 Rubenstein Awards for Highly Effective School Staff:
Sandra Gutierrez, Instructional Coach, Oyster-Adams Education Campus
Imelda Lopez-Diaz, Registrar, Bancroft Elementary School
Ricardo Owen Neal, Director of Strategy and Logistics, Eastern High School
Barbara Ochmanek, Librarian, School-Within-School at Goding
Charles Robinson, Executive Administrator, Truesdell Education Campus
Eleanor Seale, Business Manager, Hart Middle School