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Two Wyoming Elementary Schools Receive Top Honor For Performance

United States Department of Education

Two Wyoming elementary schools have received national recognition for their high performance.

The National Blue Ribbon Schools honor celebrates public and private elementary, middle and high schools for their academic excellence or work to close the achievement gaps among students. Less than 400 schools were recognized this year.

Meadowlark Elementary School in Sheridan received the award for a second time. The school's principal Christy Spielman said the staff is very dedicated helping kids solve problems in a holistic way.

"That strategic processing of problem solving through when kids have trouble with academics or social or emotional, we're here to meet all of their needs, not just the academics," she said. "I think it's really paid off, and the staff is very dedicated to helping them achieve in all areas of life, not just high test scores."

Truman Elementary School in Green River was also named Blue Ribbon School, and it's the first time it's been recognized with the honor.

Gregory Figenser is with Sweetwater County School District #2 and Truman's former principal. He said the school was only partially meeting expectations years ago.

"We're a Title I school and [have] the highest percentage in our district that are on free and reduced lunch. We have the highest percentage of our students on an [Individualized Education Program] of any of our schools in the district. So we had our set of challenges. But we didn't look at those as ways that just held as back, they were just the challenges that we had to overcome because that's our situation," he said.

The schools will be honored this November at an awards ceremony in Washington D.C.

Have a question about this story? Contact the reporter, Catherine Wheeler, at cwheel11@uwyo.edu.

Catherine Wheeler comes to Wyoming from Kansas City, Missouri. She has worked at public media stations in Missouri and on the Vox podcast "Today, Explained." Catherine graduated from Fort Lewis College with a BA in English. She recently received her master in journalism from the University of Missouri. Catherine enjoys cooking, looming, reading and the outdoors.
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