PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Nominations are open for the annual Lindback Awards, which honor Philadelphia’s top educators.
Each year, the Lindback Foundation honors seven Philadelphia School District principals and 60 teachers as the best of the best. Principals are given $20,000 for their schools, and teachers each receive a $3,500 stipend.
Rowen Elementary School principal Dr. James Murray, a 2020 Lindback honoree, said the next round of winners will have performed their duties through a year dominated by racial unrest and a global pandemic.
“We are dealing with significant trauma,” Murray told reporters. “I imagine that the school communities who are nominating administrators this year will be looking at how the administrator has steered the ship through these unprecedented times.”
Selina Carrera, a 2020 winner who teaches at the Philadelphia Juvenile Justice Services Center, said teachers this year rose to meet particular challenges.
“No other year has had to go through this and I see teachers working even harder than they ever could before to make sure that the level of care is just as elevated, if not further elevated than they were in previous years,” Carrera said.
Superintendent William Hite said the pandemic has focused attention on educators who are going the extra mile to teach students virtually.
"Individuals now can look into schools and into classrooms in a way that they have not been able to before,” Hite said. “There is a renewed appreciation and recognition and acknowledgement of the tremendous efforts that are happening by educators, not just here in the city of Philadelphia, but around the country.”
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Anyone through their school can nominate a principal or teacher for a Lindback award.
Principal nominations are due Feb. 12, 2021. The deadline for teacher nominations is March 12, 2021.
School officials and Lindback trustees will choose the winners, which will be announced next spring.