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Cars for 7 Teachers
7 Cars for
7 Teachers Program
Rewards Top Hawaii
Educators.
State and District Teacher of
the Year
award
ceremonies were held September 1 at a Board of
Education meeting
The Department of Education named the
2006 State Teacher of the Year at a Board of Education
meeting Thursday September 1, 2005, at the Radford High
School cafeteria. The new State Teacher of the Year and
the District Teachers of the Year each received a new
car (use for year) provided on site by auto dealer ad
associations, individual dealers, and affi liated associations.
The program, initiated by Hawaii’s
Volkswagen Dealers, awarded a new Volkswagen Jetta in
1999, with an apple painted on each front door, to the
State Teacher of the Year, and generated such a charming
thank you letter from the winning teacher that soon other
Hawaii dealer ad associations off ered to award free
cars (use for year) to the District Teachers of the Year
each year, creating what now has become known as the “7
Cars for 7 Teachers” program.
Th e seven cars awarded this year will bring to 43 the
number of new cars that have been provided.
The
program, initiated by Hawaii’s Volkswagen Dealers,
awarded a new Volkswagen Jetta in 1999, with an apple
painted on each front door, to the State Teacher of the
Year, and generated such a charming thank you letter
from
the winning teacher that soon other Hawaii dealer ad
associations off ered to award free cars (use for year)
to the District Teachers of the Year each year, creating
what now has become known as the “7
Cars for 7 Teachers” program.
Th e seven cars awarded this year will bring to 43 the
number of new cars that have been provided.
“Auto dealers learned from principals,
that a delightful and unexpected outcome of the program,
was that students would proudly bring parents and guests
to see the car in the parking lot and explain that their
school had the winning teacher of the year,” said
Eric Fukunaga, 2006 HA
DA president.
is the foundation of HADA’s involvement
with public education. The program helped begin a chain
of events which led to the legislature’s
successful passage of the HADA-initiated HB2353 creating
annual SAT9 assessment in reading and math in all grades
3 through 8, and one year in high school. Th e 7 cars
program also has led to a request this year by Congressman
Ed Case for $5 million in federal funding to help Hawaii
develop a language arts / core content curriculum.
Auto dealers believe that development and
use of a rigorous core content curriculum could help
propel Hawaii’s
student reading scores, in the early grades, to near
the top in the state-by-state comparisons, in only 72
months. Th is year, the seven 2006 Teacher of the Year
cars are provided by: Hawaii’s
Volkswagen Dealers, Pfl ueger Honda, JN Mazda, Hawaii
Mitsubishi, Servco Toyota, the Association of Finance
and Insurance Professionals, and the Hawaii Automobile
Dealers Association.
District winners:
To read the article on the 2005 annual
"7 Cars for 7 Teachers" event, click
here.
