Teacher Wins National Award

Turner Elementary School teacher Lexcee Oddo thought December 4th would be a normal day at school. It turned out to be a day she will never forget.

That afternoon, she took her class to an assembly in the gym where more than 700 students and faculty found themselves facing a group of dignitaries including their principal, the Turner District superintendent, and Kansas Commissioner of Education Dr. Randy Watson. After a few remarks, the commissioner said everyone was about to hear a surprise announcement and introduced Jennifer Fuller, Vice-President, Milken Educator Awards, who explained that only one Kansas educator wins the award each year and that the award includes a check. She had some fun with students multiplying $25 x 10, then by 10 again, and 10 again to $25,000. That is serious money, and excited students saw Fuller open an envelope and say, “The Milken Educator Award for Kansas goes to … Lexee Oddo.” The gym erupted in applause as Ms. Oddo accepted an oversize replica check. She and a guest will go to Washington, D.C., next June where she will receive the real check during a Milken Educator Forum with all the 2025-26 state award winners and attend panels, round tables, and networking activities.

Drawn to a teaching career by her older sister who teaches in Blue Valley and by an influential sixth-grade teacher in Olathe, Oddo is a graduate of Olathe South High School with a B.S. from Kansas State and an M.S in educational administration from Emporia State. She taught second grade at Turner Elementary for six years before teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to 150 students this year. She will be summer school principal in 2026. 

Oddo attributes her success to having high expectations for her students, to her knack for motivating them to adopt those expectations, and to creative and effective lessons. She says she knows her ESL students are succeeding when their reading confidence improves. She fortifies her classroom skills through continuing study of the science of reading and expands her broader professional growth by attending an ongoing leadership academy. 

The Milken Awards, which have been called the Nobel Prize of education, were created by Lowell Milken in 1987 to give “outstanding educators the recognition they deserve for their important work—ensuring a bright future for every student.” More than 3000 exemplary teachers, principals, and specialists have become Milken Educators, usually in early- or mid-career for what they have accomplished and for what they can contribute in the future. Honorees join the national Milken Educator Network, a valuable resource to those shaping the future of education.

A Milken Award is a surprise. There is no way to apply; candidates are identified by state departments of education using a variety of sources and are not aware they are being considered. Invited guests don’t even learn the name of the school until two days before the ceremony and are cautioned to not mention “Milken” when they arrive in order to keep the surprise alive.

Attending the Turner Elementary ceremony were a dozen past Milken Award winners including a former principal of the school when it had been Pierson Jr. High 30 years ago and a Pierson student at the time who won the award while teaching at Sumner Academy in KCK. A former Pierson science teacher became a Milken Educator while principal at Baldwin High School, making Otto the fourth Milken Educator with ties to the same Turner school, a notable record in a state with more than 40,000 teachers and principals.

The Milken Family Foundation Educator Awards serve to inspire both current and future quality educators, and more information is online at mff.org. Their motto is, “The future belongs to the educated.” Teachers like Lexcee Oddo are building that future every day.