Queens students, parents and school staff can now nominate teachers for the prestigious annual FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence, which recognizes and celebrates extraordinary public school teachers who inspire students through their creativity, passion and commitment.
Now in its eighth year, FLAG distributes $400,000 in prize money to celebrate inspirational teachers, including six separate $25,000 grand prizes awarded to one teach per borough and one 3k-5th educator from any borough.
Each grand prize winner will also receive $10,000 for arts-based initiatives at their schools, while nominated finalists will receive $10,000 in prize money in addition to $5,000 for arts programming at their school.
In the 2025-2026 awards cycle, Alexa Gutterman, a Queens native and journalism teacher at Benjamin N. Cardozo High School in Bayside, won the borough’s $25,000 grand prize for her work transforming the school’s journalism program into a multimedia program serving almost 1,000 students.
While on maternity leave, Gutterman taught herself coding and built the first website for The Verdict, the school newspaper. The site later won the New York Press Association award for Best High School Online News.
Glenn Fuhrman, a philanthropic art collector and co-founder of the FLAG Award for Teaching Excellence, said the initiative aims to highlight educators who had a positive impact on the lives of their students, stating that almost everyone can point to at least one teacher who changed their lives for the better.
“My fifth-grade teacher sparked my interest in math and numbers, which stayed with me long after I left his classroom,” Fuhrman said in a statement. “We created the FLAG Award because teachers have lasting influence every day, far too often without receiving the recognition they deserve.”
Amanda Fuhrman, who co-founded FLAG alongside her husband Glenn, said the awards set out to recognize teachers who do more than just help their students succeed in the classroom.
Risa Daniels and Laura Twersky, co-presidents of the FLAG Award program, said the initiative rewards teachers who create opportunities and bring inspiring ideas to their schools that create “ripple effects” for years to come.
“Nominations give students, families and colleagues the chance to tell us about the teachers creating that kind of change in their own communities,” Twersky said.
The deadline for nominations for this year’s FLAG Awards is Nov. 29, 2026. Teachers can be nominated by parents, students, school faculty and other members of the school community here.
Winners will be selected by an independent jury of education and civic leaders, including Dr. Betty A. Rosa, the commissioner of education and President of the University of the State of New York, and Shaude Tyson, FLAG 2026 3K-5th-grade Grand Prize Winner.
Other jurors include David Dvorkin, CEO and founder of career educational company Hire Cause; Kareem Farah, CEO of The Modern Classrooms Project; and Cris Scorza, chair of education at the Whitney Museum of American Art.