The Springlake-Earth Elementary and Junior High campus won a National Blue Ribbon School award on Sept. 16, 2022 for their Exemplary Achievement in Gap-Closing.
Superintendent Denver Crum and Bub McIver, the principal of the Elementary and Junior High campus, attended the award ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Nov. 3rd and Friday, November 4, 2022.
According to a U.S. Department of Education press release, since 1982, they have granted about 10,000 awards, for either Exemplary High-Performance Schools or Exemplary Achievement in Gap-Closing Schools to more than 9,000 schools, both public and private, across the United States.
Of the 297 schools that were recognized this year, Springlake-Earth Elementary and Junior High campus was one of 31 schools in the state of Texas to win the National Blue Ribbon award.
Springlake-Earth Superintendent, Denver Crum, said once the school was nominated, they had to go through an application process.
“Once you’re nominated, you complete the pretty lengthy application process and...you have to sustain your high achievements. If you do that through the end of the nominating year, then you become a National Blue Ribbon school,” Crum said.
Crum said the school will be honored during the ceremony and will receive a National Blue Ribbon plaque and a National Blue Ribbon flag.
“We’re very proud of it. Our teachers and kids, they work so hard to earn this great honor and we’re delighted by it,” he said.
Crum said the strategy for winning the award was to improve the overall scores.
“We were just working to improve our overall scores in the elementary and junior high campus and due to the work of our principal, our teachers and several key people on the staff, we began really working towards elevating the scores and closing achievement gaps for certain groups of students,” Crum said.
Crum said he had nothing to do with the nomination and the school was just working to improve their scores.
“We actually had nothing to do with the nomination,” he said. “We just advanced our scores to such a level, it got on the radar and in fact we were one of the highest growth districts in the state and the TA in return nominated us a National Blue Ribbon school.”
Crum said the keynote speaker for the ceremony is award-winning actor Kurt Russell.
“It’s a two-day ceremony...So we’ll be there for a few days. It should be a lot of fun. We’re excited to get to go and get to be apart of it. The keynote speaker...it’s Kurt Russell. It’s way fun. Even just going to Washington, D.C., and being recognized by the Director of Education and getting to be apart of the ceremony, it’s a huge honor for our school district,” Crum said.
Crum said he is proud, honored and humbled by the award and it is a blessing for the campus.
“It took a lot of hard work and it happened over the course of several years. I’m very proud for our kids, our families, our teachers and our principal that their work was recognized by this great honor...every day [the teachers] would pray for the kids and pray for our school and...we would never have earned this honor and this distinction without God blessing our campus and our school. We recognize that and we’re appreciative of it and yet humbled by it,” Crum said.