KC-area teacher wins award for campus leadership, helping bilingual students grow
Growing up in Olathe, Lexcee Oddo hadn’t even heard of Kansas City, Kansas’s Turner neighborhood.
But years later, she would find a home in the small community that would connect her to a love for literacy and the science of learning.
“The small community just really helps us all collaborate together,” Oddo told The Star.
Earlier this month, the public school teacher who has served elementary kids in the south KCK neighborhood for seven years earned a national award for her service to her students.
During a surprise morning assembly at Turner Elementary, representatives from the Milken Family Foundation presented a check for $25,000 and designated her the lone teacher in Kansas to receive this year’s Milken Educator Award. She’s among 30 teachers from across the country to receive the award.
The award came at a complete surprise to Oddo, who thought she was attending a school assembly. She said her palms began to sweat when she realized that a school teacher was going to receive a cash prize instead.
“Lexcee Oddo leads with compassion, kindness and a commitment to help all English language learners excel at Turner Elementary School,” wrote Jennifer Fuller, vice president of the awards committee, in the news release from the foundation.
The award was created by philanthropist Lowell Milken in 1987 to “celebrate, elevate and activate” the work of mid-career, K-12 teachers. Along with the cash award, which is unrestricted, the foundation will connect Oddo with mentorship and professional development opportunities throughout her career. She, and the other prize winners, will also be recognized during a gathering in Washington, D.C., this coming June.
Oddo came to Turner Unified School District after a friend of hers got a gig out there, she said. That friend encouraged Oddo to apply, and she joined staff at Turner Elementary School as a second grade teacher not long after.
She recently made the switch from classroom teaching to serving as the campus’s English language learning coordinator after earning her master’s degree from Emporia State University in 2023. Oddo earned her bachelor’s from Kansas State University in 2018.
Now, she specifically works with bilingual students who are learning English as a second language. Oddo helps coordinate lesson plans based on students’ reading, writing, speaking and listening skills.
Oddo is particularly passionate about tailoring her teaching style to her students’ individual needs, which often vary in each cohort and school year.
“Oddo creates a learning environment where multilingual learners are empowered to grow in reading, writing, listening and speaking,” according to the news release. “She creates an environment where high expectations, individualized support and a deep sense of purpose drive student success.”
She leads after school tutoring sessions to help her students keep up on standardized testing and offers lessons for her fellow teachers on how to best educate students in literacy, she said.
