Garden City principal second Idaho educator honored with Milken Award

Just one day after an Idaho Falls educator was honored with an award that came with an unrestricted $25,000 cash prize, a Garden City principal was awarded the same prize.

Heather Efaw, the principal of Future Public School, a charter school serving kindergarten through sixth-grade students, was honored at an assembly on Feb. 22 where she was awarded with the Milken Educator Award.

Efaw joins Kelly Sheridan, the dean of students at an Idaho Falls magnet school, as two Idaho educators who have been honored with the award. Over the 2023-2024 school year, 75 total educators will be awarded the prize.

“Heather Efaw is a beacon of excellence in education, and today, we honor her for her unwavering commitment to students and colleagues at Future Public School,” said Stephanie Bishop, vice president of the Milken Educator Awards. Bishop won the award in 2001. “Heather’s powerful leadership, commitment to the academic and personal growth of every student, and dedication to the community are just some of the ways she personifies a Milken Educator. We celebrate and welcome you to our national Milken Educator Network, Heather. Congratulations!”

Before becoming the principal of Future Public, Efaw was a literacy coach and then the assistant principal. Since Efaw becoming the principal, the school has had measurable academic growth, exceeding state performance on the Idaho Reading Indicator, the ISAT literacy assessment and in math, according to 2022-2023 test results.

“These achievements are driven by strong fidelity to the effective implementation of curricular resources, data review and analysis, classroom coaching and content-specific professional development,” the State Board of Education stated in a release. “Efaw has built trusted relationships with her faculty and leveraged staff members’ talents to implement instructional best practices, leading to high teacher satisfaction and retention.”

She earned her Bachelor of Arts in political science and criminal justice in 2007 from Saint Martin’s University, a Master of Arts in elementary education from Arizona State University in 2010, and a Master of Arts in educational administration from University of Idaho in 2021.

“As a principal, Heather Efaw demonstrates abilities that all excellent leaders have ― that ability to not only see potential and opportunities, but to then work to create an environment where that potential can grow and where those opportunities can be turned into successes,” said Superintendent Debbie Critchfield, who was on-hand to help honor Efaw. “Not only is this excellence evident in the culture of trust and collaboration that Heather has clearly fostered in her school, it shows in the numbers. That her student body exceeds state averages in not only literacy, but also in math, is a demonstration of the achievement levels that are possible when a leader creates an environment where their teachers can teach to the best of their ability and their students can learn to the best of theirs.”