60°
The CASL award honors an administrator “who provides necessary support for improving media services through encouragement and adequate funding for program maintenance and improvement.”
“In the three years that he has been at Cos Cob School, he has made amazing strides in helping me transform our tired but attractive media center into a bustling, beautiful learning commons that is indeed the heartbeat of the school,” said Schmidt’s nominator for the award, CCS Media Specialist Nancy Schwartz.
In her nomination letter, Schwartz described the extent to which Schmidt supported the vision of a learning commons, by researching to understand its value, sourcing the funding, helping to build and paint the space, scouring summer yard sales for useful materials, and promoting the virtues of the program with CCS staff and families and the community at large.
He was recognized for his teaching accomplishments in receiving the Greenwich Distinguished Teacher Award in 2005.
Schmidt was appointed Cos Cob School principal in 2013 after five years as assistant principal at the International School at Dundee and at Julian Curtiss School. An experienced elementary school educator and leader, Schmidt has taught all grade levels and art classes in traditional, multi-age, dual-grade and international settings.
He has served on one of the district’s Teacher Evaluation and Professional Learning Committee. He has assumed leadership roles throughout his career, including chair of ISD’s Social Emotional Learning Committee, as a district member of the Greenwich Education Association’s board of directors since 2001, and as an international baccalaureate trainer/presenter since 2005.
Schmidt received his bachelor’s degree in elementary education from State University College in Oneonta, N.Y., in 1974; his master’s in International Education from Framingham State College in Massachusetts in 1998; and his administrative certificate in educational leadership from the University of Bridgeport in 2007.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Greenwich and receive free news updates.
