'I'm just so lucky': Surprised Phoenix educator wins $25,000 Milken Educator Award

The sound of the school band followed teachers and students as they filed into the gym Friday morning for what they expected to be a typical celebratory assembly at Valley View Leadership Academy in Phoenix.

But about halfway through the assembly, the energy in the gym became excited and students stamped their feet in a mock drumroll after it was revealed that one of the elementary school's teachers had won an award sometimes referred to as "the Oscars of teaching."

Jessica Zimmerman, an instructional coach at Valley View, is the latest recipient of the national Milken Educator Award worth $25,000. She previously taught general and gifted education in the Roosevelt Elementary School District and has been an instructional coach supporting teachers for three years.

Kathy Hoffman, state superintendent of public instruction, praised the support Zimmerman provides to teachers. "She is lending that support on a daily basis to other teachers across the district," Hoffman said.

Hoffman told The Arizona Republic that support is critical for teachers, who "have been so resilient." The pandemic "and the political nature of it has been demoralizing for a lot of our teacher leaders."

A tearful acceptance

Lowell Milken, foundation chairman and co-founder, alongside Hoffman and Roosevelt Superintendent Quintin Boyce, presented the award to Zimmerman at the assembly.

A surprised Zimmerman tearfully accepted to a crowd of cheering students and teachers.

"When they said "amazing educator," I just kept looking at all of you because I support the seriously amazing teachers that I would say deserve this award, too," Zimmerman told the crowd. "I'm just so lucky to be able to be a part of so many of your lives."

Arizona has 2 Milken Award winners this year

Zimmerman is one of more than 60 educators nationwide to be awarded the Milken Award this school year.

In April, the award was presented to Melissa Martin, principal of Chinle Junior High School, making Zimmerman the second Arizona educator to win the award this school year.

"We greatly appreciate the recognition at the national level for these educators, for principal Martin in Chinle and now Ms. Zimmerman here," Hoffman said. "It really helps to elevate the teaching profession. We love to see that our students can be a part of that, so that hopefully this will inspire them to be future educators."

The Milken Educator Award was established in 1987. Since then, more than 2,800 educators have received the award nationwide, with 40 winners in Arizona, according to the foundation's website.

Winners of the Milken Award automatically become part of the Milken Educator Network, where they can connect with other past winners and work together to improve education.

"One thing we don't do enough of is celebrate, honor, and recognize the important work that our teachers do," Milken said. "And that's so strange because in entertainment we present a whole host of awards. In sports, you see most valuable player awards, gold medals. But isn't it odd that the one profession, the teaching profession, is seldom part of that celebration? That never made any sense to me."

The selection process for the Milken Award is unique. Educators need not apply or go through any public nomination process. While the specifics of the selection process are confidential, Milken said he seeks out educators who are "very strong instructional leaders, but also powerful mentors to other teachers."

Second recent honor for Roosevelt district

The Roosevelt Elementary School District also received attention in April when a class of third graders at Bernard Black elementary was awarded the Rosztoczy Foundation College Promise scholarship, which guarantees full-ride college scholarships once the students graduate high school.

"The reality is, we've done a lot of amazing stuff right here in Roosevelt, but without that recognition, maybe sometimes people don't know," Boyce said. "It's really tough right now being an educator. And so this type of acknowledgement, plus the big announcement a couple of weeks ago, is just a shot in the arm of encouragement as we continue to navigate this really tough time."

Reach the reporter at endia.fontanez@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter @EndiaRain.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Roosevelt school district instructor wins $25K Milken Educator Award