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Award Notification:  Brandon Sportel (CA '14)

Innovative Special Ed Teacher Brandon Sportel Wins California Milken Educator Award & $25,000

Brandon Sportel, a K-5 special education teacher at Canalino Elementary School in Carpinteria, California is the final Milken Educator Award recipient for the 2014-15 school year. California Superintendent of Instruction, Tom Torlakson, and Milken Family Foundation Chairman and Co-Founder Lowell Milken, along with veteran Milken Educators and other dignitaries, were on hand to congratulate this exceptional teacher who is known as a consummate team player willing to lend assistance on behalf of any student or family at the elementary school.

"I'm a risk taker when it comes to education,” Sportel said during an impromptu speech at a school assembly after winning his prize. “I've had a lot of administrators who have allowed me to take risks without totally micromanaging everything but saying, 'Go for it Brandon, do your thing and let's see what the results are and we'll go from there.'"