NOTE:   A photo from the award ceremony is posted on the Web site of the Milken Family Foundation.

The caption for the photo is: Pictured from left to right are Milken Family Foundation Chairman Lowell Milken, 2005 Wisconsin Milken Educator Julie Cunningham of Madison, U.S. Representative Tom Petri (R-WI 6th), 2005 Wisconsin Milken Educator Kendra K. Naef of Kimberly and Milken Family Foundation Co-Founder Mike Milken.

May 18, 2006

WASHINGTON - Kimberly High School teacher and Wisconsin Milken National Educator Award winner Kendra K. Naef met with Rep. Tom Petri Wednesday at a Congressional Reception hosted by the Milken Family Foundation. The reception is one of many events Milken National Educators will attend this week in Washington as honorees at the Milken National Education Conference.

Naef, who teaches family consumer sciences, told Petri that winning the award was a complete surprise to her. "You cannot be nominated. You are sought out by the Foundation and a committee researches you and calls references. And without your knowledge you are surprised at an all-school assembly, and you're notified of your being named a recipient as well as notification that you've received an all-expenses-paid trip to the Washington, D.C., conference - which has been excellent - and an award of $25,000," she said.

"It's not every day that a teacher in Wisconsin receives $25,000 for the job that she's done," Petri said. "This is a national effort to reward excellence in education, and I think it's a real feather in the cap of the recipient and also of the Kimberly school system for having selected her as a teacher."

This week’s conference, themed How Stakeholders Can Support Teacher Quality, explores the latest developments in attracting the best and brightest teachers to the profession, including new federal programs, unprecedented reform, and effective ways that different sectors – education, government, philanthropy, business and teachers themselves – are crossing boundaries to improve teacher quality on a national scale.

The largest national teacher recognition program in the U.S., the Milken National Educator Awards were established by Milken Family Foundation Chairman and Co-Founder Lowell Milken in 1985. Since then, the Foundation has given over $54 million to more than 2,100 exceptional K-12 educators across the nation. The Milken National Educator Network serves as an expert resource base to policymakers throughout the year.