December 3, 2010

Our Lady of the Greenwood School celebrates Blue Ribbon award

Students of Our Lady of the Greenwood School raise a special flag proclaiming it a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence during a Nov. 19 ceremony with staff members. (Photos by Tony Cooper)

Students of Our Lady of the Greenwood School raise a special flag proclaiming it a Blue Ribbon School of Excellence during a Nov. 19 ceremony with staff members. (Photo by Tony Cooper)

Special to The Criterion

From the joyful singing of the school choir at Mass to the proud raising of the “Blue Ribbon School of Excellence” flag, Nov. 19 was a day of celebration at Our Lady of the Greenwood School in Greenwood.

Even the mayor of Greenwood recognized the school’s national honor as a 2010 Blue Ribbon School of Excellence by officially proclaiming Nov. 19 as “Our Lady of the Greenwood Catholic School Day.”

“None of us earned this award alone,” school principal Kent Clady told a smiling crowd of students, teachers, staff members and parents at the celebration. “It was really a team effort.”

First announced in early September, the award from the U.S. Department of Education was officially presented during a special luncheon in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 16. Clady, teacher Mary Schultz and Msgr. Mark Svarczkopf, the pastor of Our Lady of the Greenwood Parish, represented Our Lady of the Greenwood School at the ceremony.

The school was one of nine in Indiana to receive this year’s honor. As the only private school in the state to earn the Blue Ribbon recognition in 2010, Our Lady of the Greenwood School became the 26th school in the archdiocese to receive that honor. No other diocese in the country can match that distinction.

More than a third of the Catholic schools in the archdiocese have earned this designation.

“The students work to their potential, and parents and parishioners are committed to Catholic education,” Clady said about the success of Our Lady of the Greenwood School. “The positive relationship between school staff and parents allows us to accomplish so much more.”

The Nov. 19 celebration began with a Mass at Our Lady of the Greenwood Church, concelebrated by Msgr. Svarczkopf and Msgr. Joseph F. Schaedel, vicar general of the archdiocese.

The Blue Ribbon School award “honors public and private elementary, middle and high schools whose students achieve at very high levels or have made significant progress and helped close gaps in achievement, especially among disadvantaged and minority students.”

Nationally, 314 schools received the honor in 2010. †

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