Melrose Elementary chosen for Blue Ribbon honor

link Staff photo: Tony Bullocks

Melrose schools Superintendent Jamie Widner presented students as “the future” as they celebrated a National Blue Ribbon designation on Wednesday.

It’s not easy to become a National Blue Ribbon School, but one rural elementary school in Curry County pulled it off and proved that size doesn’t always matter.

Melrose Elementary School, with a mere 140 students and 10 certified teachers, held an awards ceremony Wednesday afternoon to celebrate being one of three schools in New Mexico chosen for the Blue Ribbon honor.

Since the national award’s inception in 1982, only 20 schools in New Mexico have received the honor, according to Melrose schools Superintendent Jamie Widner.

Dora Elementary and Texico High School received the designation last year. Ranchvale Elementary earned it in 2010.

Nationwide, Widner said, 335 schools received the award this year.

“It’s huge,” Widner said. “Our teachers have done a superior job throughout the years … It’s because we have outstanding teachers today at the elementary school, and because we had outstanding teachers in the past who have helped build the program.”

The U.S. Department of Education, in a news release, said Blue Ribbon schools are determined “based on their overall academic excellence or their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups.”

Widner said New Mexico Department of Public Education Secretary Hanna Skandera gathered and looked at statewide test scores from the last six years and made nominations to the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program in February.

Widner said the announcement for the selected schools was made Sept. 29.

“I had heard of the program and tried to figure out how you can become a National Blue Ribbon School, but you have to be nominated by the chief school officer of each state,” Widner said. “When that happened, obviously someone else thought we were doing a good job.”

Widner said the main reason he believes the school was nominated to receive the honor is because teachers have been able to keep standardized test scores high and help students who scored lower achieve a higher score.

“We have outstanding teaching staff all the way from kindergarten to the 12th grade,” Widner said. “I believe Melrose Elementary is in good hands with its staff. This is something we never expected to get.”

Melrose Elementary fourth-grade teacher Dee Hill, who has taught at Melrose for 21 years, said the National Blue Ribbon Award justifies her pride in the students and teaching at Melrose.

“It’s just an extreme pride for me,” Hill said. “I’ve always felt like it was the best school around.”

The road to success wasn’t smooth, she said, and everything has to fall in exactly the right place for any school nominated to win the award.

“We have learned it’s very hard,” Hill said. “We’ve always hoped that someday we might be one of those schools, but everything just has to fall in the right direction. We have to have high test scores, consistency, they’re interested in the staff and the longevity of your staff.”

Hill said for Melrose Elementary specifically, it was all about closing the gap in students’ test scores.

“We’ve always scored high on tests, but when you have kids not score so high and there’s a large gap between, (we were) challenged to close that gap,” Hill said. “It’s not easy; not everyone learns at the same level. We’re reaching all kids, not just the very top.”

Hill said teachers at Melrose are able to focus closely on individual student needs and can do that because of their small size and the approach Widner uses in working with teachers.

“I think that’s one way we excel, and another way is we have administration that just believes in us,” she said. “Mr. Widner’s belief is he hires the best teachers around and just lets them teach. That’s been a wonderful thing for us as teachers; he’s supportive and allows us to explore ways to teach that fit our students.”

Widner said he’d like for Melrose High School to also be able to achieve Blue Ribbon status, and believes the staff at Melrose Elementary will be able to continue its excellence in education.

Widner said another awards assembly would be held in November when Skandera can attend.