Sitting in the exact gym where he sat as an elementary school student, Metacomet Elementary School Principal Desi Nesmith was brought to tears when he learned that he had received the Milken Educator Award\u2013nicknamed \u201dthe Oscars of Teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure if it was real,\u201d Nesmith said of receiving the prestigious honor. The Milken Educator Award is the premiere teaching accolade that recognizes the \u201cunsung heroes\u201d of education, providing them with a $25,000 award. Nesmith says that he is giving \u201cserious consideration\u201d on what to do with the award money.<\/p>\n
Nesmith was told that Commissioner of the State Department of Education Stefan Pryor was visiting to congratulate Metacomet Elementary School on their reading and writing scores. Before Nesmith was named principal four years ago, the Bloomfield elementary school had a wide achievement gap of 19 percent and struggled in reading, writing, and math scores. Just last year, Metacomet reported that these scores exceeded the state average by 8.1 percent. Nesmith is credited for eliminating the achievement gap and bringing up the academic scores.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s fantastic when a home-grown hero-educator receives the recognition they deserve,\u201d Pryor told the\u00a0Hartford Courant<\/em>. \u201cHe\u2019s the superb kind of leader we need to foster in Connecticut \u2026 he sets a precedent for his peers and we are so proud.\u201d<\/p>\n Nesmith was \u201cabsolutely overwhelmed and humbled\u201d to receive this award and was the only educator in Connecticut this year to do so. His roots are here in Connecticut, graduating from the Neag School of Education and working around the state. Previously, Nesmith presided over the turnaround of SAND Elementary School, which went from being the sixth lowest performance school to being recognized in 2010 as one of the top ten improved schools.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first time Nesmith has been highlighted for his accomplishments. After earning his BS in 2001 and an MA in 2002 through the Neag School of Education\u2019s IB\/M program, he went onto complete the UCAPP administrator preparation program in 2009. In 2009, he received the inaugural \u201cOutstanding Young Professional Award\u201d from the Neag School of Education Alumni Society.<\/p>\n \u201cNeag prepared me for my position by equipping me with the tools necessary to be a change agent for kids,\u201d Nesmith said. \u201cThe relationships that are established are life long relationships with professors and Dean Schwab that last far beyond the end of the semester. Neag faculty stay with you as a support system for all your endeavors.\u201d<\/p>\n To receive this prestigious award at Metacomet, where his love of learning began, is something Nesmith will always cherish.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember my older brothers walking me across the street to school every day before they\u2019d run off to the middle school \u2013 we lived right across the street,\u201d Nesmith told the\u00a0Hartford\u00a0Courant<\/em>. \u201cBeing able to be a principal here is what it means to me to come full circle \u2013 this award, this is just so much more.\u201d<\/p>\n Nesmith is added to the list of 92 Connecticut educators to be recognized as Milken Educator Award recipients since the award\u2019s inception. The Milken Family Foundation has honored early to mid-career educators around the country with unrestricted $25,000 awards since 1987.<\/p>\n \u201cI see this award as a culmination of the hard work of many people including the Metacomet students, teachers and families,\u201d Nesmith said. \u201cTo receive this award and to represent both Metacomet and Bloomfield Public Schools with this honor is the most humbling thing that could happen to me as an administrator.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Sitting in the exact gym where he sat as an elementary school student, Metacomet Elementary School Principal Desi Nesmith was brought to tears when he learned that he had received the Milken Educator Award\u2013nicknamed \u201dthe Oscars of Teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":190,"featured_media":204489,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147,1855],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2455],"class_list":["post-204488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-neag"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 05:40:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/190"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204488"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204490,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204488\/revisions\/204490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/204489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204488"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=204488"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=204488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}