A 'super cool' award

By: 
Jill Meier, Journal editor

U.S. Congresswoman Kristi Noem visited Robert Bennis Elementary Monday to recongnize students and staff for being named a National Blue Ribbon School. Jill Meier/BV Journal

Robert Bennis Elementary named National Blue Ribbon School
 
Students, staff and parents at Robert Bennis Elementary have been in a celebratory mood. And they have good reason, as RBE is one of 342 schools nationwide to be recognized as a 2017 National Blue Ribbon School. 
The accolade is based on the school’s overall academic performance or progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups.
An all-school assembly on Monday – highlighted by a special visit from U.S. Congresswoman Kristi Noem – officially marked the accolade.
“You guys won a really, really great award - you’re a National Blue Ribbon School! Do you know that that’s like, super cool?” Noem asked, noting RBE is one of only three schools in South Dakota to receive the elite honor this year. “High five, everybody, awesome!”
Noem added, “To have only 342 schools in the nation to receive the award with the hundreds of thousands of schools that we do have in the country, I think it’s important that we draw attention to it because education is the key to success. We need to make sure that everybody recognizes that when these kids at this age work hard to reach an achievement like this it will help them be more successful if we celebrate along the way.”
The National Blue Ribbon Schools Program honors public and private elementary, middle and high schools where students achieve very high learning standards or are making notable improvements in closing the achievement gap. This coveted award affirms the hard work of educators, families and communities in creating safe and welcoming schools where students master challenging and engaging content. 
RBE was one of three South Dakota elementary schools to be named a National Blue Ribbon School. Frederick Area Elementary and Immaculate Conception School (non-public) in Watertown are the other two.
“National Blue Ribbon Schools are active demonstrations of preparing every child for a bright future,” said. U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos “You are visionaries, innovators and leaders. You have much to teach us: some of you personalize student learning, others engage parents and communities in the work and life of your local schools and still others develop strong and forward-thinking leaders from among your teaching staff.”
Dr. Jarod Larson, superintendent of Brandon Valley Schools, describes the achievement as “the highest honor the U.S. Department of Education can give a school.”
“It’s just a tribute to staff, teachers, parents and of course, the kids,” he said. “Hats off to (former) Principal (Karen) Heyden for the great work and the great leadership that she performed with RBE, and Principal (Kristin) Hofkamp for continuing that on. We all couldn’t be happier. The sign out front says it, ‘We all had a hand in this thing,’ and I think that speaks volumes to not only Robert Bennis Elementary School, but all the way through our high school. It takes a village and we couldn’t be happier for our staff, kids and parents. All in all, it’s a great day to be a Lynx.”
Hofkamp praised the RBE student body for being active learners. 
“That effort and dedication to learning is the main reason that we were honored,” she told the kids. “As the lunchroom window says by the blue handprints, ‘We all have a hand in our success,’ every single one of you in this room played a part in us winning this award. The hard work of all of our students, our staff, our leadership and our parents really makes Robert Bennis a great place to be.”
The award, Hofkamp added, was achieved through hard work.
“It’s not just a one-day thing. This is 180 days of hard work at school, every single day, to achieve that end goal,” she said.
Speaking on behalf of RBE’s teaching staff, Anne Peters and Tim Sylliaasen, are elated with the honor.
“That’s what this school is all about,” Peters said. “Achieving higher than we have in the past. It’s a really big honor and just a cool feeling to be part of this staff.”
 “I don’t think it starts with me as a teacher,” Sylliaasen said. “I think it starts with my administrator willing to help and give us whatever we need to get to this place. We are a very competitive group of teachers, which I think is helpful in what we’ve done here.”
First grader Ava Lembcke summed up her school’s honor in one word: “Awesome,” while fourth grader Madisen Csordacsics used “cool” to describe the accolade.
“It’s cool that we got to be one of the schools and there’s not a lot of schools that did get it this year.”
The prestigious accolade came as no surprise to Jen Wullstein, who is in her second year as president of the RBE Parent-Teacher Association. 
“I have been involved in the Robert Bennis PTA for five years - I joined when Emma went to kindergarten - and have been president for the last two years. This experience has given me a behind the scenes view on just how hard the RBE teachers and staff work for our kids. I honestly cannot say enough good things about them.  
From the lunchroom staff, educational assistants, nurse, office staff, janitors, administration, teachers, and everyone in between, RBE staff are all working towards the same goal: providing the very best educational experience and foundation of learning for our kids,” she said. 
Now in its 35th year, the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program has bestowed recognition on more than 8,500 schools. On Nov. 6-7, the Secretary and the Department of Education will celebrate with these honorees at an awards ceremony in Washington, D.C.
All schools are honored in one of two performance categories, based on all student scores, subgroup student scores and graduation rates:
• Exemplary High Performing Schools are among their state’s highest performing schools as measured by state assessments or nationally normed tests.
• Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing Schools are among their state’s highest performing schools in closing achievement gaps between a school’s subgroups and all students over the past five years.
Up to 420 of the approximate 133,000 schools in the U.S. may be nominated each year.

 

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