‘Temporary’ Teacher Lee Wins 2011 Milken Prize

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Glenn Lee (with leis) claims his award from Gov. Abercrombie, schools chief Kathryn Matayoshi, com- plex area superintendent Patricia Park and Waialua principal Randiann Porras-Tang. Photo from the DOE.

As Glenn Lee sat plotting next semester’s robotics team strategy during his “temporary” 18-year career as a Waialua High School teacher, something interrupted his concentration: Hawaii’s 2011 Milken Family Foundation National Educator Award.

Presented in a school assembly Dec. 9, Lee accepted the surprise honor from Gov. Neil Abercrombie and DOE officials, along with a large mock-up check for $25,000. The prestige of it all is still settling in, he hinted in a Dec. 14 interview: “I’m supposed to receive the real check in February, but I sent the big one in for framing and it’s so expensive to frame!”

Now, as an officially outstanding teacher, he also will make a presentation to the Hawaii DOE and will attend a national Milken Foundation conference in March. The foundation celebrates teachers with “exemplary instructional practices, outstanding accomplishments and long-range potential to contribute to the profession” by giving them unrestricted monetary gifts and bringing them together to network and reform education.

A former engineer, Leilehua High alumnus and Royal Kunia resident, Lee looked at teaching as a temporary way to share his electrical engineering know-how through real-world applications in the classroom. Now he has a practical plan for his prize money: Buy a new car, invest in an education fund for 2-year-old daughter Janel, and take wife Auria out for longawaited “little-bit-nicer” dinner.

But the ultimate reward has already come to his students for having him as a teacher and mentor in the Bulldogs’ world-renowned robotics program. “People from all over follow us on our website,” Lee said proudly, noting that it had 10,000 recent hits at waialuarobotics.com which is currently under renovation by a Waialua eighth-grader.

Established in 1999, Waialua’s robotics program is the oldest in the state, and The Hawaiian Kids team has been turning out college-bound, science-savvy self-starters from this rural community ever since. The program currently has 30 students from the school’s high and intermediate grades, and they are looking forward to building a big new robot for three major “bot battles” at varsity tournaments on the mainland next spring and summer.

“We’re a year-round program, and we can always use more money,” said Lee, who also coordinates grants for school programs. The next major fundraiser will be in May at Honolulu Country Club with Dole Plantation as a partner.

But he won’t quit his after-school job. For 21 years, Lee’s been a parttime banquet waiter at Honolulu Country Club.

“All my education opportunities came from there,” he explained, “meeting people, forming partnerships. That’s where I ran into my former principal, and that’s what led me to this teaching job at Waialua.”

Waialua principal Randiann Porras-Tang is grateful for Lee’s career shift: “Students who work with him explain that he holds them to the highest of expectations,” she said. “He prepares them for life in the real world. He never accepts excuses and is incredibly persistent in challenging them to achieve excellence.”