Nominated by: April Peters-Hawkins
James Verrilli is the founding co-principal of the North Star Academy Charter School of Newark. Jamey’s vision was to create a school for underserved students attending the state-run Newark Public Schools. Under Jamey’s visionary and social justice oriented leadership, North Star Academy has grown from a single charter middle school that opened in 1997 with 32 students, to a network of 10 schools that serve over 3,500 elementary, middle and high school students in the Newark, NJ area. The North Star Network of schools have, since their inception, been a beacon and an exemplar for effective teaching and learning for educators in both public and charter school contexts.