Local Schools Win National Award

Education

Buffalo Elementary School in North Platte won the prestigious national Blue Ribbon award, an honor bestowed on only 4 schools in Nebraska and 300 schools nationwide. The honor capped four years of hard work by school staff and students to boost attendance and raise reading, writing, and math scores. Their improvements included a dramatic improvement from 50 percent proficiency in writing in 2006 to nearly 100 percent in 2009. That caught the attention of state and federal officials.

A school assembly to receive the honor was attended by Elaine Venard of the Department of Education and Nebraska Lieutenant Governor Rick Sheehy. To read more about the dramatic effort to improve the school, click here.

Of the four schools in Nebraska to win this honor, another one was also close by. Southwest Elementary School in Indianola also won the Blue Ribbon School designation. Ceremonies will be tomorrow at 12:30pm in the school gym.