Six School District of New Berlin educators have been chosen as Herb Kohl Educational Foundation award winners, the most ever in district history.

Samantha Braun, a special education teacher at New Berlin West; Saghar Homayounpour, a computer science teacher at West; Karin Houston, a counselor at West; Samantha Jayne, an English teacher and
English Learner instructional coach at West; Devin McKinnon, a technology education teacher at New Berlin Eisenhower; and Alison Napieralski, a special education teacher at Elmwood Elementary have been awarded Herb Kohl Educational Foundation Fellowship Awards.

It is the sixth straight year that the SDNB has had at least four Kohl award recipients. The six award winners are one better than the group of five winners in 2021.

They are six 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.

Fellowship 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.

“We are incredibly proud of this year’s group of Herb Kohl Educational Foundation award winners,” Superintendent Joe Garza said. “It is an eclectic collection of individuals with unique skillsets. It is a group that
is representative of the talented staff we have across the district who work hard each and every day to provide extraordinary learning opportunities to all of our students.”

The Kohl Foundation Scholarship and Fellowship program was established by Herb Kohl, U.S. Senator (Retired), in 1990. To date, the foundation has awarded $34 million to Wisconsin educators, students, and
schools.