Local school nominated for national recognition

Lakeside Elementary School is one of three Montana schools nominated for the 2010 National Blue Ribbon Schools Award.

These awards, which came out of the No Child Left Behind Act, recognize schools that have high academic achievement or have shown dramatic gains in achievement levels, partially based on reaching annual yearly progress, or AYP, goals on standardized tests.

It looks particularly at high performance in reading and math and honors schools that have at least 40 percent of their students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.

"Obviously, I was really surprised," Principal John Thies said. "You just don't ever think about these things. This is the first time, to my knowledge, that we've received the nomination."

Lakeside Elementary has made AYP goals for last four or more years, and its population of economically disadvantaged students has been growing, especially recently, Thies said.

The nomination for the award came from the Montana superintendent of public instruction, Denise Juneau.

"We are very proud of these schools and believe they reflect the high quality of Montana's public school classrooms," Juneau said in a recent press release.

Gardiner High School in Gardiner and Elrod Elementary School in Kalispell were also nominated. Two of the three schools will earn the award later this year, Thies said.

Thies says Lakeside's recognition is due in large part to the teachers at the school.

"This is nothing to do with me," Thies said. "It's all about the staff getting the best out of the kids. They have been good teachers, very nurturing. It's really about how good the staff is."

Thies also attributes the school's achievements to community involvement. About 80 percent of parents turn out at parent-teacher conferences and open houses and the community as a whole supports education, he said. A recent example of this, Thies said, was a group from the community that spent $400 to purchase books at the school's book fair for students whose families couldn't afford to get them one off of their wish lists.

The winning schools will be honored at a ceremony in October 2010 in Washington, D.C., and each will receive a plaque and a flag and serve as a model for other schools in the country.

More than 400 schools will be nominated nationwide.