Chester Elementary nominated for national award program

Central Valley School District’s Chester Elementary School is one of seven schools in the state invited by the U.S. Department of Education to apply for its No Child Left Behind – Blue Ribbon School Program Award for 2006-07.

This is the first time a school in the Spokane Valley has been nominated to apply for the award.

The Blue Ribbon Award program honors public and private K-12 schools across the country in two categories; for making dramatic improvement in helping disadvantaged students close the achievement gap or for being a “high performing” school, scoring in the top 10 percent of all schools in the state on reading and math assessments.

Chester was selected in the “high performing” category based on the school’s scores on the WASL taken last spring.

“The Blue Ribbon School Award nomination is quite an honor. This is another example of how hard our teachers and kids at Chester work together. As a staff, we work at making each student’s learning a fun and successful experience,” said Cindy Sothen, principal.

Every state and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have an assigned number of possible schools based on the number of students and the number of schools. In the past few years, five to seven Washington schools have been selected.

Julie Hanson, awards program coordinator for Washington’s Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, said it’s up to the Department of Education whether or not the seven schools applying this year will be selected as Blue Ribbon Schools.

“The schools must complete a comprehensive application process to the satisfaction of the DOE. Also, the seven schools must make AYP (annual yearly progress) in the 2006-07 school year before final approval/selection is made. That information will not be known until next August,” said Hanson.

Chester fourth-grade teacher Andrew Phillips said, “Our success shows that school can be fun and educational, not just drill and kill.”

“This honor reaffirms what a privilege it is to work with children on a daily basis,” said Annette Lamon, a fifth-grade teacher at the school.

Applications are due in February, and in September the secretary of the Department of Education will announce which schools will be recognized as Blue Ribbon Award schools.

Next fall, the principal and a teacher from those schools will be invited to Washington, D.C., for a ceremony where they will be presented with a plaque and a flag signifying their status.

The award was originally established in 1982, but the criteria changed in 2001 to reflect the philosophy of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.