Bernadine Futrell on Awards and Professional Recognitions

Inside aasa

AASA uses its national conference each year to recognize exceptional school system leaders for the excellence in their work and their impact on public education.

For the past two years, Bernadine Futrell, director of awards and collaborations, has been leading the recognition efforts. She carries added duties as director of AASA’s growing array of certification, cohort and consortia groups.

Futrell previously worked for the Alexandria, Va., City Public Schools as an accountability analyst, where she helped tell the story of the district through data, including test scores. In her current position, she uses a similar skill set to find ways to celebrate the accomplishments of a school district.

The following interview of Futrell by AASA staff member Rebecca Shaw has been edited for length and clarity.

What is your primary role at AASA with regards to awards and scholarship programs?

It’s twofold. The first part is to figure out what AASA members are doing in their districts and how to scale those accomplishments so that others can benefit. The second part is to create environments where school system leaders can challenge each other’s thinking so they can grow and develop the profession in a way that benefits children.

What are the most prominent awards and professional recognitions that AASA gives members?

The best-known award is the Superintendent of the Year, which has been around for 30 years. One of the other prominent awards is the Distinguished Service Awards, which has existed almost as long as AASA has been around. This award recognizes people who have retired from the superintendent profession. They don’t apply — they are nominated by their colleagues for the work they’ve done in public education.

Over the past couple years, we added the Women in School Leadership Award with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. With this award, there’s a school-based category for the classroom teacher, a category for central-office staff and a superintendent category.

How does AASA as an organization benefit from the concentrated attention to professional recognition?

As an organization, we are better because we know what our members are doing through these awards. AASA members are on the front line. They are women and men leading their school districts. We aspire to develop and support school leaders so we can benefit from their knowledge and experiences, as well as their wins and failures.

AASA can start with a core group of people who’ve demonstrated excellence in various areas. We are better able to celebrate good work and identify leaders who can help us with work we want to do as an organization.

What stands out to you in an exceptional superintendent?

The superintendent should be the key driver for the district’s culture. He or she should be someone who can demonstrate evidence of connecting all the stakeholders. They should be able to talk about the partnerships they have with their chamber of commerce, their school board and their parents, teachers, communities and students.

In what ways do you hope the award programs might expand over the next few years at AASA?

I would love to see an institute where the award winners are meeting multiple times a year to contribute to a knowledge base. I hope that at future AASA national conferences, we might convene the 49 state superintendents of the year and the two international award winners in a two-day forum where they’d focus on a topic such as early childhood learning.

Currently, our state finalists meet on stage at AASA’s national conference and then at the gala in Washington, D.C., in November where they participate in a policy forum.

These additional meetings would be a good way to connect the award winners and use their expertise in a collective thinking exercise that can lead to tangible results.

How have the association’s recognition programs changed over time?

When you win an AASA award, it’s not only a trophy. Award winners are also thought leader practitioners and mentors. We invite them to lead our growing professional development programs. They are someone that we turn to in the organization for insight and to help move us forward. 

*Inside AASA is a monthly feature about AASA services and products and the staff members behind them.*