news-record.com

HIGH POINT — A Guilford County Schools teacher will receive $25,000 after being named recipient of a national education award.

Kimberly James, a special education teacher at Triangle Lake Montessori, is one of 55 teachers in the U.S. to receive a 2010 Milken Family Foundation Educator Award, which has been called the "Oscar of Teaching."

A representative from the foundation and state Superintendent June Atkinson surprised James with the news during a student assembly at the school on Tuesday. Guilford County Schools named James Elementary Teacher of the Year earlier this year.

James will formally receive the award after she attends an all expense-paid trip to Los Angeles to attend the foundation's annual conference. She is the only teacher from North Carolina to win this year.

The foundation, based in Santa Monica, Calif., established the award in 1985 to recognize public school teachers and it chooses winners based on confidential recommendations from state education departments.