Elsbernd Finalist for Urban Educator of the Year Honors
School Board member Cindy Elsbernd is one of four finalists for the Green-Garner Award, presented each year by the Council of Great City Schools to the nation’s top urban educational leaders.
The Council of the Great City Schools has announced that Des Moines School Board chair Cindy Elsbernd is one of four finalists for the Green-Garner Award, recognizing the nation’s top urban educators. The honor is presented each year, alternating between superintendent and school board members.
Elsbernd was just reelected to the School Board on Tuesday, earning more than two-thirds of the vote.
Below is an article from the next issue of the Urban Educator, the monthly magazine of the Council of the Great City Schools, about the award and announcing the four finalists as well as a video on Elsbernd’s nomination.
Anticipation will be in the air on the evening of Oct. 8, when the top honor for urban-education leadership will be announced at the Council of the Great City Schools’ 59th Annual Fall Conference in Long Beach, Calif.
Four big-city school board members are finalists for the Green-Garner Award, recognizing outstanding contributions in urban education and named in memory of Richard R. Green, the first African American chancellor of the New York City school system, and businessman Edward Garner, who served on the Denver school board.
The finalists for the award are school-board members:
- Cindy Elsbernd of Iowa’s Des Moines Public Schools;
- Perla Tabares Hantman of Miami- Dade County Public Schools;
- William (Bill) Isler of Pittsburgh Public Schools;
- Bill Sublette of Florida’s Orange County Public Schools in Orlando.
And now the moment everyone has been waiting for. The announcement of the 2015 Urban Educator of the Year will be made at the 26th annual award banquet Oct. 8.
Sponsored by the Council, Aramark K-12 Education and Voyager Sopris Learning, the Green-Garner Award is presented to an urban-school superintendent and board member in alternative years. The winner receives a $10,000 college scholarship to present to a student.
Last year’s awardee was Superintendent Terry Grier of the Houston Independent School District.
