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One day isn't enough to celebrate Lombard school's Blue Ribbon honor

When your school earns one of the highest honors in education, sometimes one day of celebration isn't enough.

Lombard's Butterfield Elementary School spent the entire week celebrating its recent designation as a National Blue Ribbon award winner by the U.S. Department of Education.

Butterfield was among 24 Illinois schools selected for this year's recognition.

There were daily events at the school over the past week, including "blue" activities on Tuesday and students gathering Thursday to form a human blue ribbon. The week concluded on Friday with an afternoon pep rally and a surprise flash mob dance by staff.

"We've been practicing before school and after school. We thought the kids would get a kick out of it," Principal Kristina Walsh said.

DJ Marz from Charizma Entertainment Group provided the music and also got the kids dancing.

"We are one of 300 schools recognized across the nation out of 133,000 schools," Walsh said. "It's a pretty big deal and we're really, really proud of it."

The National Blue Ribbon award is based on a school's overall academic performance or progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups.

Lombard Elementary District 44 officials said the award affirms the hard work of educators, families and community members in the district, "who collectively worked toward creating a safe and welcoming school where students master challenging and engaging content."

  DJ Marz gets kids dancing during a pep rally Friday at Butterfield Elementary in Lombard. Bev Horne/bhorne@dailyherald.com
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