Each year, outstanding administrators are recognized through ACSA’s awards program. Celebrating the success of school leaders at both the state and job-alike level is an important way for ACSA to honor its members.
Crafting a nomination packet that will garner an ACSA award is essential. Tips for creating successful nominations include:
• Be professional. Use Adobe Reader or Acrobat to fill out the nomination forms electronically, or use a typewriter on a hard copy, rather than filling them in by hand. Proofread and spell-check your nomination forms and all supporting materials thoroughly.
• Get help from experts. Consider hiring a professional writer and/or proofreader to compose and edit your nomination documentation. Concise, well-written documents will go a long way in making sure your nominees stand out.
• Follow the instructions. Make sure you have fulfilled all the nomination requirements. Each nomination requires a maximum of two pages explaining how the nominee meets the criteria. Not including this or leaving spaces blank reflects poorly on your nominee.
• Read the criteria carefully. Be aware of all the criteria required for the award, listed on the front of each nomination form. Use the checklist on the back of each nomination form to ensure that you have included everything you need to include, such as region approval, criteria explanation and supporting documentation.
• Choose supporting materials wisely. You may attach two pages of supporting documentation (five for Robert E. Kelly) to each nomination form, such as letters of support or newspaper articles. If you feel that to do your nominee justice you must include an extra page or two, you can do so. However, only a reasonable number of pages of supplemental material will be submitted to the Awards Committee, so take the time to consider what will have the greatest impact.
• Submit nominations on time. Nominations received by state ACSA after the deadline will not be considered eligible or submitted to the Awards Committee.
• Generate continuity. Develop a binder or file for your region in order to store successful nomination forms from past years, list contacts, save tips and provide a record of consistency and success.
• Have someone review every nomination one last time before you submit to state ACSA. Imagine you are reading as many as 450 nomination forms – what makes your nominee(s) stand out? Does the nomination fully convey how outstanding he/she/they are?
• Make sure your nomination forms have been received on time. Send the nominations via Fed Ex/UPS and track the delivery or request that the region awards coordinator or ACSA awards committee liaison call or e-mail to confirm that they received your packet by the deadline.
Pitfalls to avoid include handwritten nomination forms, submitting documents with spelling or grammatical errors, including too many pages of supplemental documents, including documents that do not clearly communicate a nominee’s excellence, nominating non-ACSA members for awards requiring membership for eligibility, omitting the requested one to two pages of text explaining how the nominee meets the criteria, nominating current ACSA Board members, missing the state ACSA deadline, submitting nominations that have not been signed by a region president or designee, sending the completed nomination forms to an old or incorrect contact at ACSA.
The correct address is printed in the awards booklet sent to region leadership and on the ACSA Web site at www.acsa.org/awards.
ACSA award recipients are honored at ceremonies during the annual Leadership Summit. The association’s top awards include:
• Ferd. Kiesel Memorial Distinguished Service Award. ACSA’s highest honor is made in the memory of ACSA’s founding president to an individual who has made a significant contribution to public education.
• Marcus Foster Memorial Award for Administrator Excellence. Established in the memory of the former Oakland schools superintendent, this award goes to an outstanding administrator who exemplifies Foster’s inclusive, creative and effective management style.
• Robert E. Kelly Award for Outstanding Community Service. This award recognizes volunteer work to further the cause of education by an administrator who has been retired for at least three years.
• Valuing Diversity Award. This award is given to an administrator who epitomizes ACSA’s mission statement by his/her efforts to promote diversity and support for all of the children, parents and staff at a school or district.
• Partners in Educational Excellence. Exemplary school-community partnerships that promote effective educational performance, enhanced student achievement and strong community involvement are recognized by this award.
ACSA’s job-alike Administrator of the Year Awards honor exceptional performance at the school site or district level, including superintendent, secondary principal, middle grades principal, elementary principal, central office administrator, co-administrator, classified manager, confidential employee, personnel/human resources administrator, adult education administrator, vocational education administrator, special education administrator, superintendent/principal, business services administrator, pupil personnel administrator, curriculum and instruction administrator, and continuation/educational options administrator.
Award nominations are due to state ACSA in February. ACSA regions conduct their awards programs at varying times, so members are advised to contact region leadership for local deadlines.
Nominations forms are available at www.acsa.org/awards. For more information, contact Emily Senecal at (800) 608-ACSA or e-mail esenecal@acsa.org.