McCarver Elementary School Principal Dan Tharp and his staff members were stunned when their meeting was interrupted by a large group of people on Wednesday, Jan. 21. A very welcome interruption it turned out to be—and a very well-kept secret. Boeing officials had come to McCarver to present Tharp with the John D. Warner Award for Excellence in Education and a check for $25,000.
Fred Kiga, vice president for State & Local Government Relations and NW Global Corporate Citizenship for The Boeing Company, made the announcement and presented the check to Tharp as district administrators, Boeing officials and John D. Warner watched the elated reaction of the staff. Kiga also gave Tharp a model of a Boeing 777-300ER airliner, which will have a John D. Warner Award plaque added to the base. Once a year since 2002, Boeing has rewarded a K-12 public school in the Puget Sound area that demonstrates excellence in school leadership, teacher excellence and student learning.
“McCarver is a school that has consistently seen amazing success despite serious challenges,” said Superintendent Art Jarvis. “Tharp and his staff deserve recognition for their outstanding work to increase student achievement and for their partnerships with our community.”
“Receiving this award was a complete surprise and I was shocked. Our McCarver staff members have worked very hard for a long time, and we have many wonderful community partners and volunteers who do so much for McCarver kids,” said Tharp. “As a staff, we get so involved with our work that we don’t always stand back to see what we have accomplished until we receive awards like this. We thought we were going to have a visit from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction on Thursday.”
McCarver school counselor Carol Ramm-Gramenz said, “I was speechless when I heard about the John D. Warner Award—and for me to be speechless is unusual! Everybody here works so hard, and it makes us really proud to be part of something that is working. It makes us feel like we could do anything. We feel honored to do this work and have others recognize what we are doing well.”
This award was created by Boeing to honor John D. Warner, who retired as Boeing's chief administrative officer in 2002 after a long and distinguished career with the company. The award recognizes Warner's longtime and continuing dedication to reforming public education. Only one award per year is awarded to Washington schools.
Tharp had some ideas on how McCarver might spend the $25,000, but he wants the school’s site council to be involved with the decisions. He said McCarver’s uniform room is depleted and he would like to see a fund for students who are on medications that their families cannot afford.
Mary Lyon Elementary School was the first recipient of the John D. Warner Award in 2002.
Note: Boeing corporate citizenship: Boeing is a vital corporate citizen, committed to improving the quality of life in communities worldwide. In the U.S., Boeing’s focus is education—early learning through 12th grade, as well as higher education; health and human services; arts and culture; and civic and environmental issues. Boeing and its employees contribute tens of millions of dollars each year in corporate charitable investments, participation in volunteer programs, gift matching programs and the Employees Community Fund of The Boeing Company, the world's largest employee-owned charitable organization of its kind.