Acknowledging that educators deserve recognition for their commitment to pandemic learning, eSchool Media’s K-12 Hero Awards highlights the exceptional efforts of educators in schools and districts

eSchool Media announces winners of first-ever K-12 Hero Awards Program


Acknowledging that educators deserve recognition for their commitment to pandemic learning, eSchool Media’s K-12 Hero Awards highlights the exceptional efforts of educators in schools and districts

Rockville, MD, August 31, 2021–eSchool Media is pleased to announce the winners of its inaugural eSchool Media K-12 Hero Awards program, sponsored by Trox, which recognizes the determined and dedicated efforts of educators throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Never before have educators been challenged and tested as they were, beginning in March 2020 and up until today, and never before has their resilience been more apparent. Administrators, technology leaders, classroom teachers, and educators in all roles have persevered as they taught each and every one of their students during a global pandemic.

“The idea came from the many conversations I’ve been having for my podcast series with eSchool News,” said Kevin Hogan, editor at large with eSchool News. “I’ve been speaking with tech directors of school districts around the country, talking about their response to the pandemic, and each one of the stories were just incredible. These are tales of outright true heroism. During those conversations, I began to think these people, these stories, not only need to be shared, but celebrated.”

Three nominees stood out among the many inspiring nominations that flooded in:

  • San Diego Unified School District, nominated by Trox: SDUSD’s Instructional Technology Department was nicknamed the “First Responders” due to its proactive approach to COVID-19. From showing teachers how innovative technology could help improve learning outcomes to ramping up workshops geared toward preparing educators to teach online, this small but mighty team of six went above and beyond to make an impact during unprecedented times.
  • Brevard Public Schools, nominated by PDQ.com: In the thick of the pandemic, on an evening in October 2020, Florida’s Brevard Public Schools began experiencing the onset of a ransomware attack. IT Director Barrett Puschus immediately called his team to action, waking many of them up, so they could shut down the district’s entire system. After identifying that the attack was enabled by phishing, Puschus worked across the district of 74,000 students and nearly 10,000 staff to tighten security protocols and prevent another incident.
  • Navajo Preparatory School, nominated by Kajeet: When COVID-19 forced NPS to shut its doors in March 2020, the entire technology department quickly mobilized to ensure learning continuity in a completely virtual environment. This proved especially challenging as its student population spans the whole Navajo reservation, including some of the most rural areas of New Mexico, Utah, and Arizona. In traveling to students’ homes to disperse Wi-Fi hotspots, faculty quickly became aware of the challenges students faced. To support students, NPS would use school buses equipped with Wi-Fi to run weekly routes to deliver a week’s worth of dry food as well as art supplies, books, laptops, and other educational materials.

In the coming weeks, the three winners and all program finalists will be highlighted in profiles published on eSchoolNews.com and in a custom ebook available for download.

About eSchool Media

eSchool Media is a digital marketing and custom content service platform. Through eSchool News and eCampus News, eSchool Media provides daily original news, objective analysis, resources, and information to decision-making education professionals in K-12 and higher education. eSchool Media serves the advertising and marketing needs of companies and organizations that want to influence, and do business with, its loyal and professional audience of education decision-makers.

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Laura Ascione
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