The Jamestown Public School District is proud to announce that Samuel G. Love Elementary School has been named a 2006 NCLB– Blue Ribbon School.
Love School received a congratulatory letter from the Secretary of Education, Margaret Spellings. In the letter, she congratulated the Samuel G. Love Elementary School community and that the school was chosen for this award because of its efforts to ensure that every child learns and that no child is left behind.
"Jamestown School District is extremely proud of Love Elementary Schools’ accomplishment, both at the state and national level,” said Jamestown Public Schools’ Superintendent, Raymond Fashano. “It is an excellent accomplishment to Principal Renee Hartling and her dedicated staff who have worked so hard to achieve this goal."
Love School principal, Renee Hartling and teacher, Mary Marcum, were chosen to represent the school at an awards ceremony in Washington, DC in November. While in Washington, DC, they listened to leading educators discuss what makes a Blue Ribbon school. They heard about whole school reform, changes to meet the needs of each student, working together as a team, rising up to meet challenges - all things done on a daily basis at Love Elementary School.
In Washington, DC, Love Elementary School was one of fourteen schools from the state of New York and one of 292 nationwide, including elementary, middle, and high schools. Love School received a plaque and a banner from Raymond Simon, the Deputy Secretary of Education, who individually congratulated each school on their outstanding performance.
The Blue Ribbon School program requires schools to meet either of two assessment criteria. It recognizes schools that have at least 40% of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds that dramatically improve student performance in accordance with state assessment systems; and it rewards schools that score in the top 10% on state assessments regardless of their demographics.
New York State nominated Love School for the first criteria – the school has shown dramatic improvement in student performance on state assessments. Love School received notification and a certificate from the New York State Department of Education to recognize them as one of New York State's 795 "High Performing/Gap Closing Schools.” The school was then notified as one of the state's nominations as a 2006 Blue Ribbon School. Once nominated by the state, the school was invited to apply to be a Blue Ribbon School.
Love School completed the application process and waited for the results of their 2006 state assessment scores. In October, the scores were released and they achieved the required standard. They were then notified by the U. S. Department of Education that they were chosen a 2006 Blue Ribbon School.
