The Alliance for Education and Seattle Public Schools announced that Principal Mia Williams from Aki Kurose Middle School and Principal Jennifer Wiley from Franklin High School will both receive the 2013 Thomas B. Foster Award for Excellence for their outstanding leadership. The award includes a $50,000 cash grant to each principal’s school in their honor.
On the afternoon of Friday, March 22, Aki Kurose Middle School and Franklin High School students and families joined representatives of the Alliance for Education and Seattle Public Schools to surprise Principal Williams and Principal Wiley with their respective awards.
Thomas B. Foster was a prominent Seattle attorney who exemplified excellence in both his professional life and his role as civic leader. To honor his legacy, his family and friends established this award to honor outstanding secondary school principals in Seattle.
This is the first time in the history of the award that two principals have received the honor in the same year.
“The award committee felt both Mia and Jennifer deserved to be recognized for their outstanding accomplishments this year. Rather than split the award between them and diminish the impact on each school, we decided to award each the full $50,000,” said Jody Foster, a key member of the committee.
Here are some highlights about their careers:
Principal Mia Williams:
- Principal Williams is in her fifth year as a leader at Aki Kurose Middle School.
- She is known for working tirelessly, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year.
- She has created a school culture of high expectations, inclusiveness, equity and mutual respect among staff, students, families and community members.
- Test scores have consistently improved under her leadership.
- She has built numerous relationships to bring innovative practices to her school.
- She shares her building with Rainier Scholars and hosts nearly 20 community partnerships.
Principal Jennifer Wiley
- Dr. Wiley is in her 10th year at Franklin High School.
- Franklin had the highest wait-list of all 10 comprehensive high schools in the fall of 2012 due to Dr. Wiley’s strong leadership.
- Franklin has had notable test scores in Writing, Math and particularly high English Language Learner (ELL) performance. It has the best disaggregated results across the state and this success has been sustained as the population served has become more challenging.
- The school has a number of community partners and in addition to a strong athletic program, the school also has extracurricular groups that have been recognized at a state and national level including the mock trial and chess team.
