PRINCIPAL LEADERSHIP AWARD

What is the amount of the Leadership Award?
The Herb Kohl Leadership Award is a one-time only $6,000 award to the selected principal, and the principal's school also receives $6,000. Up to seventeen Leadership Awards are awarded annually--12 or 13 to Wisconsin public school principals and 4 to religious/independent school principals/administrators.

Who is eligible?
Pre-K through Grade 12 Wisconsin principals must first be nominated online by a parent, teacher, student, community member or administrator before they can apply. Previous Kohl Leadership Award recipients are ineligible.  However, principals who received Kohl teacher fellowships or Kohl scholarships when in high school are eligible. Applicants who have been nominated in the past but not selected as a Leadership Award recipient may re-apply if nominated. 

How can I be nominated?
You must be nominated on this website by a parent, teacher, student, community member, or an administrator.  Potential candidates cannot self-nominate. Nominations for a 2023 award must be submitted by October 4, 2022, at 5:00:00 p.m. central time.

After I am nominated, what is the next step?
Nominated principals are notified of their nomination no later than mid-October. If they choose to apply, they must do so online using the link that they are sent from the Kohl Foundation.  

What is the application deadline?
Kohl Principal Leadership nominees must submit their completed applications online no later than Friday, January 6, 2023 at 5:00:00 p.m. central time.

What is the selection process?
​The Association of Wisconsin School Administrators (AWSA) and representatives of private schools will review each applicant’s packet. Successful applicants' materials will be forwarded to a State Selection Committee in early 2023.  Representatives of the Kohl Educational Foundation, CESAs and MPS, the Wisconsin Newspaper Association, and state education-related associations serve on the State Selection Committee. The committee will score applications in late January.  Applicants who are selected to receive Leadership Awards will be contacted by the Kohl Foundation no later than March 2023.

How will an applicant be notified if he or she has been chosen to receive a Kohl Leadership Award?
Applicants who are selected to receive Leadership Awards will be notified by the Kohl Foundation no later than March. The Leadership grant will be sent to recipient principals and the matching grants will be sent to recipient principals' schools in May.

Are there restrictions on how the Leadership Award may be used?
There are no restrictions on how a Leadership Award recipient may use his or her $6,000 award. The Kohl Foundation suggests that the Leadership Award recipient's school use its $6,000 matching grant for innovation in education.