Three School District of New Berlin teachers and three high school seniors have been chosen as Herb Kohl Educational Foundation award winners. It is the second consecutive year the SDNB has had at least five Kohl award recipients.

Julie Ibar, an art teacher at Elmwood Elementary; Donna Malone, a special education teacher at New Berlin West Middle/High School; and Jessica Santiago, a Spanish teacher at West, have been awarded Herb Kohl Educational Foundation Fellowship Awards.

Ibar is in her 25th year with the SDNB. Malone has been in the district since 2001 and at West since 2009. Santiago is in her second year in the district, both at West. They are three of 100 Wisconsin teachers to earn this year’s $6,000 award with a matching $6,000 award given to their respective schools. Fellowship recipients are educators who have been chosen for their superior ability to inspire a love of learning in their students, their ability to motivate others, and their leadership service within and outside the classroom.

Additionally, nearly 200 graduating high school students have been recognized by the foundation with $10,000 scholarship awards including New Berlin Eisenhower’s Connor Forberg, Anjaly Nagarajan and Grace Woo, and West’s Brynn Flanders and Noah Miller.

All five students earned Excellence Scholarships, given to those who have demonstrated excellence in the academic arena and high motivation to achieve, have displayed a broad range of activity and leadership
outside the academic setting, and have shown strong promise for succeeding in college and beyond.

Fellowship and Excellence Scholarship recipients are selected by a statewide committee composed of civic leaders and representatives of education-related associations and the program’s co-sponsors: The Wisconsin Newspaper Association Foundation, Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, Wisconsin Council of Religious and Independent School, regional Cooperative Educational Service Agencies and the Association of Wisconsin School Administrators.

“Having eight recipients of the prestigious Herb Kohl Educational Foundation awards is a tremendous honor for our school district,” Superintendent Joe Garza said. “We are extremely proud of our hard-working staff and are proud that this trio of teachers is being recognized for their efforts. And this is the third consecutive year we’ve had at least three students honored -- that says a lot about the quality of students, families and staff we have in New Berlin.”

The Kohl Foundation Scholarship and Fellowship program was established by Herb Kohl, U.S. Senator (Retired), in 1990. To date, the foundation has awarded $20.9 million to Wisconsin educators, students, and
schools.

The eight School District of New Berlin honorees, along with other regional winners, have been invited to be recognized at a luncheon at Divine Savior Holy Angels High School on Saturday, May 9.