Four local schools joyous over Blue Ribbon awards

Four Northwest suburban elementary schools have received 2009 Blue Ribbon awards, the U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday.

They are Windsor Elementary School in Arlington Heights; St. Raymond Catholic School in Mount Prospect; Ira Rupley Elementary School in Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59; and Woodlawn Middle School in Long Grove.

Three of the schools were honored for reaching the top 10 percent of public and private schools in Illinois as judged by standardized tests in reading and mathematics.

Meanwhile, Ira Rupley was the only school in Illinois honored for dramatically improving student performance in a school where at least 40 percent of the students come from disadvantaged backgrounds.

St. Raymond, with 540 students from preschool through eighth grade, celebrated with an ice cream social Tuesday.

"We are really, really proud of the exemplary level of academic excellence, thanks to our incredibly devoted faculty and staff along with extremely devoted parent community that joins together to help students reach their greatest potential," said Principal Dawn Kapka.

Brian Kaye, principal of Windsor, expressed similar sentiments and named a few programs that have particularly helped students.

The school had a one-year grant to teach Japanese, and staff and parents were worried about that taking away from the basics, but it obviously did not, he said. This should bode well for the district's initiative to teach Chinese, said Kaye.

"I think it was the curiosity of the students and their excitement to try something new and different and the staff's determination - they were not willing to give up reading or writing," said Kaye.

Several languages are spoken by children at Rupley, according to the school's application for the award.

Almost half of the students are Hispanic and more than half the population is eligible for free or reduced-priced meals.

"There was little discrepancy between Hispanic and white ethnicity groups in the number of students who meet or exceed (state standards) in reading," the application said, noting that this had not been the case in previous years.

The extra help gotten from Title I funding was one of the tools mentioned as helping the school succeed.

In Long Grove, the excitement at Woodlawn Middle School was evident.

"This is so exciting. News like this says we're doing the right things," said Principal Greg Grana.