Southmost teachers bask in limelight of winning Blue Ribbon School award

Teachers and administrators at Southmost Elementary singled out relevancy and sticking to a plan as keys to the school becoming the first in BISD to be named a Blue Ribbon School.

Earlier this month, Southmost Elementary became one of 264 public and 50 private schools in the United States to receive a Blue Ribbon School award for the 2008-2009 school year. The award is the highest honor the U.S. Department of Education can bestow on a school.

A delegation of Brownsville Independent School District administrators and Southmost Elementary teachers traveled to Washington, D.C., to receive the award. On Thursday, the group shared impressions of the visit and on being among the top 1 percent of schools in the country.

"We try to make it relevant to something we know that they like ... so that learning becomes contagious," assistant principal Julie Salinas said when asked how teachers had motivated their students to achieve the kinds of gains that won the award for Southmost.

Principal Jimmy Haynes said he and his administrative team analyzed data about Southmost when he was named principal and set a vision for the school.

"We looked at the data to come up with a vision of where we wanted to take the school," Haynes said. "To establish that vision we looked at the culture of the school, at changing ideologies toward education and students and academics. Then we had to sell the vision," he said.

Haynes stressed the importance of hiring highly qualified teachers who share the same core values and have passion for the subjects they teach.

"We singled out the areas we wanted to improve — the bilingual program, reading and building a strong reading culture — plus improving math scores and science scores," he said.

Haynes added the goal initially was for Southmost to become a recognized campus under Texas Education Agency guidelines.

The school did that and more, in 2008-2009 garnering TEA recognition as an exemplary campus and getting nominated for the Blue Ribbon School award.

TEA nominated Southmost Elementary because of its increasingly good scores on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills. Southmost then underwent a rigorous evaluation process. A large part of winning the award was the number of students passing the TAKS with a "commended" score — or above grade level.

Mary Jo Monfils, area assistant superintendent for the Lopez Cluster of which Southmost is a part, said when she visits students at the school: "They don’t want to just pass the TAKS; they want to pass it commended."

During Thursday’s discussion, interim superintendent Brett Springston asked what it takes to get students to achieve above and beyond grade level.

"A lot of hard work, sir," came the answer from special education teacher Grace Porciunnula. "We put the pressure on ourselves."

Springston said BISD will work to spread Southmost’s success to other schools in the district.

"This entire district can do that," Springston said, referring to the growing number of BISD exemplary schools, winning the 2008 Broad Prize for Urban Education and now having a Blue Ribbon School.

"The next step is to share it with other schools," he said.

Porciunnula was optimistic.

"Sir, if we were able to do it, all the other schools should be able to do it, too," she said.

Reflecting on the honor of being a Blue Ribbon School, fourth-grade teacher Ada Cabrera-Fernandez said growing up in the Southmost area made winning the award special.

"We are part of this system," she said. "We grew up in this system." Winning the Blue Ribbon School award ... "that’s the maximum for an educator," she said.