Pulaski High School principal Jeremy Pach is among 16 statewide winners of the Herb Kohl Educational Foundation 2019 Principal Leadership Awards.
The award is part of the Herb Kohl Foundation honoring 304 students, teachers and principals. Awards in the amount of $6,000 are being made to 100 teachers, 16 principals, and their schools, and $10,000 scholarships will be given to 188 graduating high school students.
Pach said he is honored and humbled to be chosen for the award. “This award certainly reflects the great collaboration happening in the PHS building. The PHS staff shares a large part of this award. They continue to grow exponentially and have given me the opportunity to grow alongside them.”
Pach attributed the great things happening to the ability of staff members to stay flexible, challenge one another to improve and to reflect on the school’s strengths and weaknesses.
“I’m also excited about the opportunity and positive impact I will have in sharing the $6,000 in winnings inside our district,” he added.
Principal Leadership Award 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 Schools, regional Cooperative Educational Service Agencies, the Association of Wisconsin School Administrators, and the Wisconsin Parents Association.
“Through Jeremy’s leadership as the high school principal, collaborative teams have excelled in implementation and refinement of the flexible modular (flex mod) schedule and a substantive transformation to a culture of Professional Learning Communities (PLC),” said Bec Kurzynske, Pulaski Community School District superintendent. “Undertaking just one of these organizational change processes would be noteworthy, however, Jeremy has led both processes simultaneously and has done so by modeling expectations and supporting our staff and students.”
Award recipients were notified of their awards on Tuesday. Regional recognition luncheons honoring the recipients will be held in a few weeks.
“We are proud of Jeremy’s accomplishments and honored that he shares his talents with the staff, students and learning community at PHS,” Kurzynske added.
The Kohl Foundation Scholarship and Fellowship program was established by Herb Kohl, philanthropist and businessman, in 1990. To date, the foundation has awarded $17.8 million to Wisconsin educators, principals, students and schools.
“Education is the key to the future of Wisconsin and our nation. I am very proud of the accomplishments of these students, teachers, and principals and look forward to the great contributions they will make in the future,” Kohl said.