When DC Public Schools honored teachers and administrators at the Standing Ovation ceremony earlier this month, they capped off a challenging year for the school system. Last year DCPS was at the center of a scandal involving inflated high-school graduation rates. Former Chancellor Antwan Wilson resigned in February 2018 after it was reported that he used his position to circumvent the system’s lottery.
Still, speakers at the Feb. 7 event managed to keep the focus on paying homage to those dedicated educators and administrators in DCPS. They touched lightly on the organization’s struggles in the previous year, preferring to focus instead on a general theme of social justice. Several of the most high-profile award winners took the opportunity to voice their dedication to creating a more fair and just school system for the District.
Mayor Muriel Bowser and acting DCPS Chancellor Lewis Ferebee were on hand to address the crowd of teachers, principals and employees of DCPS and representatives from the DC Public Education Fund, which has hosted the annual event since 2010.
“I think about not just the teaching and learning, but the long hours we work — and yes, I know those hours are long. I think about the milk cartons we open, the noses we wipe,” Ferebee said. “But I also think about the powerful influence that’s a lasting influence that stays with the young people we touch. I call that the ‘forever moments.’ Forever moments are those defining moments that we never know when we’re delivering.”
Bowser expressed her gratitude for DCPS employees at the event, which the host called the “education Grammys.”
“Every adult who works in our schools plays an important role in setting our students up for success — from the individuals who open up our buildings every morning, our administrative teams who make sure our kids are ready with their schedules and everything else they and their families need to be successful, and every staff person [who] plays a part in the teaching and learning that goes on in our buildings,” Bowser said.
Awards honored individuals as well as schools for their achievements over the past year. Winners of the 2019 Rubenstein awards in school leadership, teaching and support each took home $5,000. Those recognized as teacher of the year, principal of the year and support-staff member of the year each received $10,000 and had the chance to address the audience.
”I’m not a teacher because I’m inspired by hope — I’m a teacher because of the teachers that failed me as a child,” 2019 Teacher of the Year Lakeisha Brown said in her speech. “They failed to realize that sometimes I didn’t need just reading and writing, I just needed a hug to know that things were OK.”
Brown, a teacher at Ward 4’s Lafayette Elementary, continued: “We teach our children that they are beautiful and amazing just the way they are, but why is it when we look in the mirror at ourselves, we don’t even like what we see? … We tell our children to speak up and speak out against bullying, but yet we sit silent when it comes to the institutional racism that exists within our buildings.
“We have to practice what we teach,” she said.
Ketcham Elementary’s Maisha Riddlesprigger was recognized as 2019 Principal of the Year. The Ward 8 school — which recently added a child care center — also won this year’s Together with Families Award, given to schools that have developed strong relationships between faculty and family. In her acceptance speech, Riddlesprigger echoed the theme of social justice and equity in public education.
“We all know that great urban elementary schools don’t happen by accident — they are created by design,” she said. “This happens when the adults decide that the systems and structures in our society that are inherently inequitable and unjust have to be dismantled to provide opportunity and access for all students and families.”
Riddlesprigger went on to say that she’s dedicated herself over the course of her 19-year career to creating spaces in the classroom for children of color to succeed. Her childhood as a young black girl who succeeded academically, she said, ought to be a common experience, not an outlier.
“I knew as an educator that I had to create spaces where students of color felt affirmed and validated not for passing a test, but for their effort and their strength,” Riddlesprigger said.
The award for School Staff Member of the Year went to Daisy Torrento-Del Cid, administrative officer at Seaton Elementary in Ward 6. Torrento-Del Cid, a Salvadoran immigrant, has worked in DC for 18 years and helps recent immigrants navigate the public school system.
The event included awards for Ketcham and four other schools singled out for excelling in various ways, with each receiving an accompanying $25,000 prize.
Marie Reed Elementary in Ward 1 won the Equity Award, given to the school that has done the most to close the achievement gap and overcome institutional bias. Randle Highlands Elementary in Ward 7 received the Empowered Team Award for effective leadership development and strong staff recruitment and retention.
The award for Innovation for Excellence went to Hendley Elementary in Ward 8 for its efforts in imagining new pathways for success for its students. School-Within-School @ Goding in Ward 6 won the Whole Student Award, which recognizes a school that fully integrates social emotional learning into the curriculum and school culture.
Over 3,000 people gathered at the ninth annual award ceremony. Held at The Anthem on the Southwest waterfront, the cocktail-attire event featured entertainment from Flo Rida and was emceed by Duke Ellington School of the Arts alumnus Lamman Rucker, now an actor on the Oprah Winfrey Network’s Greenleaf.
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