Jackson Elementary’s principal wins ‘Best in Education’ award

Andrew Jackson Elementary School‘s principal, Lisa Kaplan, received a national award from The Best Schools for “Best in Education” for 2015.

With this win comes a nice chunk of prize money for the school. $10,000 is already designated to the school with the receipt of this award, but Kaplan is also donating her $10,000 in prize money to the school.

As an educator for approximately 30 years, Kaplan has continuously worked to better the students and community in the schools she works with. During her six years to this point at Jackson, she has worked to better the school district, despite the budget cuts and poor conditions of the school. When she began as principal here, there was a ton of mold, a leaking roof, flaking plaster and plenty of outdated “educational fossils.”

Kaplan has been able to create better community partnerships, in addition to help from the families of students enrolled at Jackson, to begin improving the facility in a number of ways.

“I really believe the reason why this school works is the relationship piece,” Kaplan told TheBestSchools.org in a phone call earlier this week. “I’m a connector, I’m a relationship builder.… I open the door. You have to open the door.”

You can read more about the strides Kaplan has made at Jackson here.