September 19, 2004
Boulder Daily Camera
Summit Middle Charter School has been designated Friday as a national Blue Ribbon School for the second year in a row.
Summit, a Boulder charter school, is among six schools in the state honored through the Blue Ribbon program under the new federal No Child Left Behind law. The program recognizes schools that make significant progress in closing the achievement gap or, as is the case with Summit, whose students score in the top 10 percent on state tests.
September 17, 2004
Denver Post
by John Ingold
Brighton -- State and national officials announced to an assembly of about 500 fidgeting grade-schoolers Thursday that this city's South Elementary School has been named a No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon School.
South was one of only five public schools in Colorado and about 200 in the nation to receive the honor. The prestigious awards go to schools that show exceptionally high academic performance, or those that show significant increases in performance and in closing the achievement gap.
Other public schools in Colorado winning the award were the Kit Carson school in Kit Carson, D'Evelyn Junior/Senior High School in Jefferson County, Summit Middle Charter School in Boulder and Manassa Elementary School in the San Luis Valley.
Both Summit Middle and Manassa won the awards last year, as well.
St. John's Lutheran School, a private school in Denver, also received a blue-ribbon award this year, said Patricia Chlouber, the U.S. education secretary's regional representative.
"These schools are national models of education that others can look to," Chlouber said Thursday in presenting the award to South students and staff.
South principal Kay Collins cried when presented with the award certificate. South won the award for its work over the last few years improving student performance and closing the achievement gap despite numerous challenges.
Forty percent of the kids at the school are English-language learners. Fifty-seven percent are impoverished enough to qualify for free and reduced-price lunches.
"It's just the culmination of so many people's hard work every day," Collins said later. "Not getting frustrated, but pushing every student every day to achieve."
Out on the Eastern Plains, Kit Carson Superintendent Gerald Keefe said the award is a complement to the other successes - in sports and music - his school has had recently.
"We're pretty excited about the improvement we've made," he said. "Over a three-year period, we went from average to high to the excellent category" on the state school report cards.
Jefferson County Public Schools spokesman Rick Kaufman said officials at D'Evelyn, a somewhat alternative school within the district, were thrilled to win the award. "It's a great testament to the work students and teachers do there," he said.