State nominates local school for national honor

Dalondo Moultrie The Seguin Gazette

State officials are recognizing an area school district’s work improving education for its students.

Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Education Agency announced Thursday the nomination of 26 Texas public schools as 2021 National Blue Ribbon Schools, including Navarro Elementary School.

The governor and TEA nominated the campus as an Exemplary Achievement-Gap-Closing School.

“Being nominated for National Blue Ribbon Schools is a huge honor,” Navarro ISD Superintendent Wendi Russell said. “Out of 20,000 schools in the state of Texas, to have an elementary school recognized for closing the gap is phenomenal.”

Many schools have scores similar to the ones Navarro Elementary posted, she said. Most of the Texas schools listed as nominees are big schools in large districts. So, Navarro Elementary School receiving such recognition is a huge deal, Russell said.

Winning the honor to be named a National Blue Ribbon School while battling it out with so many schools across the nation would be tremendous, she said. Navarro Elementary School stands out and has a great chance at being named a National Blue Ribbon School, Russell said.

“If we win, it would mean national recognition for our elementary school and our district,” she said. “We know we are already a fast-growth district but this will bring more people knocking on our doors asking what we are doing and how are we getting there. We’ll be able to share that. Our motto is ‘excellence is the standard;’ this supports that motto.”

The National Blue Ribbon Schools program initiated in 1982 recognizes public and private elementary, middle and high schools with high student achievement and/or highlights exemplary progress made in closing achievement gaps between student subpopulations, Abbott said in a news release. As many as 9,000 schools throughout the years have received recognition as National Blue Ribbon honorees.

Abbott saluted the 26 state nominees.

“These 26 schools exemplify academic excellence, and I thank the teachers, staff, administrators, students, and parents for their outstanding work,” Abbott said. “We have a responsibility to ensure that every Texas student graduates with the knowledge to succeed in college or a career, which is why last session we passed transformative legislation to invest more money into our classrooms and give our teachers a pay raise. This session we will build on these accomplishments to ensure that every Texas student receives a quality education regardless of their zip code.”

Texas public schools are considered for nomination based on student performance on the first administration of the previous year’s State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness assessments. Each nominated school has an economically disadvantaged population of 25% or more, the statement read.

Nominated schools complete a “rigorous” application process conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, which will announce the winners in September.

The Blue Ribbons Schools Awards Ceremony will recognize the schools who earned the designation.

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