July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.

Pennville, Bloomfield get 4 stars

Schools

By JACK RONALD
Publisher emeritus

Two Jay County elementary schools received Four Star School Awards Wednesday from the Indiana Department of Education.

Bloomfield Elementary School and Pennville Elementary School were among 188 schools to meet top state standards for attendance rates, student achievement, and performance on the ISTEP-Plus test.

Only three schools in East Central Indiana achieved Four Star status for the 2008-2009 school year.

Storer Elementary School in Muncie was the only Delaware County school to receive the award. No schools in Adams, Blackford, or Randolph counties achieved Four Star status this time.

"These Four Star Schools represent the top 25 percent of schools in our state, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Bennett said Wednesday in a prepared statement.

"We shoot for it every year," Bloomfield principal Dan Hoffman said this morning.

Bloomfield is a perennial Four Star performer, with 2008-2009 being the 11th time it has earned Four Star honors.

For Pennville, the award is a first.

"It's been really close several times," Pennville principal Larry Wilson said this morning. The school's academic performance has met the state's highest standards, but attendance figures have been a problem in the past.

"We've been working really hard to get there," Wilson said. "We've really worked hard to stay on top of attendance." School secretaries play a key role in keeping attendance figures high, he added.

To earn the distinction, a school must be fully accredited by the Indiana State Board of Education, meet Adequate Yearly Progress as defined by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and perform in the top 25 percent of all schools in the state the percent passing both the English/language arts and math ISTEP-Plus, proficiency scores in both areas, and attendance rate.

"It's students, parents, staff, and community," said Hoffman. "It's a combination. We're all clicking. We're all on the same page."

Jay Schools superintendent Tim Long was delighted by the news.

"We had one other school that was really close," Long said. "But we don't just stop here and rest on it."

Long and both principals noted that students move between schools so the awards reflect positively on the entire school corporation.

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