Sandra McBrayer, a teacher who runs a school for homeless children in San Diego, traveled to Washington last week to collect honors as the 1994 National Teacher of the Year.
Ms. McBrayer started the Homeless Outreach School six years ago with the cooperation of the San Diego public schools. She teaches students in grades 7 through 12 in a storefront in the downtown area.
Chosen from among the nation’s more than 2.5 million elementary and secondary school teachers, Ms. McBrayer received the traditional crystal apple from U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley at a dinner on April 20 and was scheduled to meet with President Clinton at the White House.
The National Teacher of the Year award is sponsored by the Council of Chief State School Officers and Encylcopaedia Britannica Inc.
The other finalists were Marjorie West, a 1st-grade teacher at Glennon Heights Elementary School in Lakewood, Colo., Francis Kemba Mustapha, a biology teacher at South Side High School in Fort Wayne, Ind., and Dodie Burns Magill, a kindergarten teacher at Pelham Road Elementary School in Greenville, S.C.
New Director: Scott P. Roberts has been named the director of the Annenberg/C.P.B. Projects at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Mr. Roberts, who has served as the acting director of the projects since January, will oversee the Annenberg/C.P.B. Math and Science Project, a 12-year initiative launched in 1991 that awards grants to groups seeking to improve K-12 mathematics and science education. He will also lead the original Annenberg/C.P.B. Project, a grantmaking program started in 1981 that supports efforts using technology to increase nontraditional students’ access to higher education. Both projects are supported by grants from the Annenberg Foundation.
President Named: Independent Sector, a coalition of 800 corporations, foundations, and nonprofit organizations based in Washington, this month appointed Sara E. Melendez as its new president.
Ms. Melendez, who is currently the president of the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, will begin her new job in September. She has worked and written extensively on bilingual education, diversity issues, and improvement of educational opportunities for minorities.
Back to Denver: The Denver school board has named Irv Moskowitz, a former top official with the 63,000-student district, to replace retiring Superintendent Evie G. Dennis.
The seven-member board voted unanimously this month to hire Mr. Moskowitz, who is the superintendent of the Pomona, Calif., school district.
Before joining the Pomona schools in 1989, Mr. Moskowitz was an employee of the Denver schools for more than 12 years, serving as a principal, a planning and development official, and an assistant superintendent.
Under his four-year contract, which takes effect in September, Mr. Moskowitz will earn about $110,000 a year in base pay as well as any performance-based incentives.
