The Buckeye Elementary School held an unsuspecting school assembly on March 31 with Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne and Milken Educator Awards Senior Vice President Dr. Jane Foley in attendance, where they presented a $25,000 award as a surprise to the principal.
The school’s principal, Megan Brown, said she was under no suspicion anyone would be recognized for any award as it was normal to have staff of the Arizona Department of Education to visit the school as just 18 months prior, the school held a failing rating.
But at the meeting, Brown was recognized with an education award for transforming the school to a place of thriving education with the commitment to make sure students were receiving the best education they could have.
From 2018-19 to 2021-22, the school jumped from an F rating with a place on the state’s watchlist to earning a B grade as a place to watch.
Brown said she is proud to come from a family of educators. She is originally from Wyoming where she grew up and attended the University of Wyoming to earn her bachelor’s degree in education. She then moved across the county to Arizona where she taught for six years while going to school to earn her master’s degree, after which she became assistant principal at Buckeye Elementary.
In January 2021 she took over as the principal.
“I think I had a huge benefit in being the assistant principal as I knew the people and we already had a connection and relationship. But with the staff, I knew we needed to promote collaboration and transparency on our teaching and education efforts,” Brown said.
Under her leadership, Brown said she worked with teachers and staff to openly identify weaknesses and strengths they had and what issues the school saw together.
One idea that came out of these meetings was the creation of a phonics program, a small-group instruction and a Tier 1 literacy support plan.
She called these meetings the Guild Coalition, which occurs once a month to analyze what is being seen in students.
“We didn’t have a strong phonics program,” Brown said. “We understood we had to dedicate time to it and start from scratch. We did an intervention block where we needed everyone to do this. So we had a good conversation of making 100 small groups, that we pulled in one week. We were seeing that the kinder students were 75% below state literacy levels and with this new program it saw a result of the kids being 80% over the expectancy level.”
Because of her openness for discussion and improvements, the school saw staff retention rise to 90% since Brown took over as principal.
These actions are what increased the schools rating and what earned her the education award.
After receiving the Milken Educator Award, Brown said she was able to take part in their award ceremony forum in Los Angeles, where she met other recipients and past recipients from across the nation.
This forum was a humbling experience as she was able to speak with other winners who worked hard to transform there schools, Brown said. Some of these conversations also led her to think if she could adopt there ideas.
“It was absolutely an incredible experience. We focused on connecting and networking with educators form across the nation, with 34 winners from this year as well as veteran recipients, I focused on what I could take back to my classroom and talking to the best of the best in the nation and being proud of that,” Brown said.
The award from Milken is free for her to use however she chooses, but she said she still hasn’t figured out what to do with her large award.
Brown said maybe it would go back to her three kids for their future education or her potential pursuit to earn her doctorate. But she said she still owes her family a vacation as she has been a workaholic for quite some time.
Brown sought to thank all the staff and faculty for their hard work and dedication to the students at Buckeye Elementary, as without there efforts she wouldn’t have been able to receive the award.
“If I didn’t have the teachers and staff that I had I would not have been in this position, this comes from the deepest part of my heart. They trusted me and my ideas as well as their efforts to collaborate and work harder it was really them that delivered the instructions that improved our quality. They deserve the credit and their is no way the school could have done what it did without them,” Brown said.
Frank Espinoza is a recent graduate of Northern Arizona University from the beginning of 2022. He prides himself on covering topics that give a spotlight to individuals or groups who give back to the community. He has covered local sports, community events, and important issues that impact the state. In his spare time, he loves to watch Street League Skateboarding and hang out at Cowtown Skateboards in Goodyear.
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