ENROLLED
2024 Regular Session
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 270
BY REPRESENTATIVES BEAULLIEU, BRYANT, AND JACOB LANDRY
A RESOLUTION
To commend Christine Bayard of Johnston-Hopkins Elementary School in New Iberia on
being awarded the Milken Educator Award.
WHEREAS, it is most fitting to recognize Christine Bayard for her dedicated work
as an educator in New Iberia Parish and to commend her on receiving the prestigious Milken
Educator Award; and
WHEREAS, the Milken Family Foundation's Milken Educator Awards program was
created by Lowell Milken in 1987 to reward and inspire excellence in the world of education
by honoring the top educators across the United States with an unrestricted $25,000 cash
reward; today, it stands as the nation's preeminent teacher recognition program with more
than two thousand eight hundred exemplary teachers, principals, and specialists awarded;
and
WHEREAS, the Milken Educator Awards are aimed at early-to-mid career education
professionals for their impressive achievements and, more significantly, for the promise of
what they will accomplish in the future; and
WHEREAS, Christine Bayard, who teaches sixth grade math at Johnston-Hopkins
(JHOP) Elementary School in New Iberia, has earned this national award for her approach
to teaching; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Bayard is an alumnus of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette
where she earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology with a minor in child and family
studies in 2009 and completed a post-baccalaureate certification for middle school math
education in 2017; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Bayard founded JHOP's math club, works with the Junior Beta
Club, serves on JHOP's instructional leadership team as a mentor teacher in partnership with
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the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET), and assists with JHOP's end of the
year "Fun Day"; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Bayard has served as a certified Louisiana mentor teacher and was
featured at the 2023 national NIET conference on effective coaching strategies; and
WHEREAS, the state superintendent of education, Dr. Cade Brumley, stated:
"Ms. Bayard's classroom is an innovative space where math transcends textbooks and
students engage in real world lessons. Her commitment to a student-centered approach is
seen through academic outcomes and the difference she has made throughout her school.";
and
WHEREAS, Ms. Bayard's students explore math concepts to see how math plays a
pivotal role in daily life; she has donned a full space suit for class and transforms lessons on
decimals and rate reasoning into experiences that are truly "out of this world"; her students
calculate how much food, water, and oxygen is needed to live on Mars for two years, how
long a Mars text message would take to send to Earth, and how many days it would take to
ride a horse to the moon; and
WHEREAS, in Ms. Bayard's classroom, students use cubes to build habitats after
calculating cost, revenue, and profit or loss for their projects and have explored fractions by
virtually building race cars, working through the effect of weight on speed and velocity; and
WHEREAS, Ms. Bayard will attend an all-expenses-paid forum in Los Angeles in
June 2024 where she will network with new awardees and veteran Milken educators to
develop mentorship opportunities for expanded leadership roles on state, national, and
international levels; she is most deserving of the highest recognition for her truly incredible
achievement.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the House of Representatives of the
Legislature of Louisiana does hereby commend Christine Bayard of New Iberia's Johnston-
Hopkins Elementary School on being awarded the Milken Educator Award.
SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
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