North Star Academy to Raise the Blue Ribbon Flag

North Star Academy gets to raise a flag and this one is special. The home of the Gryphons will host a ceremony Friday to raise the Blue Ribbon Flag, an honor the school was given by the U.S. Department of Education last October.

Current principal Leslie Crane, former Principal Wendy Kelly and North Star fourth-grade teacher Karen Gaffney traveled to Washington D.C. for the award ceremony that took place in the White House.

Established in 1982, the program recognizes those schools exhibiting the highest levels of student achievement or which have made exemplary progress toward bridging the achievement gap.

Kelly was largely responsible for establishing North Star’s ‘Single Plan for Student Achievement,’ (SPSA) a few years ago.

State Senator Jerry Hill is scheduled to visit North Star, a 3-8 grade school, for the ceremony, which is set for 10:30 a.m. Friday.

North Star was one of only 17 public and private schools in the state of California to be awarded the honor last year.

“Receiving a 2012 National Blue Ribbon School designation is an enormous honor,” Superintendent Jan Christensen said at the time. “We are proud that North Star shares this distinction with some of the best public and private schools in the nation.”

According to the U.S. Department of Education website, to be eligible for nomination to the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program, schools must be in the 85th percentile or above on statewide tests or count among the top 10 percent of schools serving a largely socioeconomically disadvantaged student body showing consistent improvement over the past five years.

North Star was designated a California Distinguished School in 2010. In the 2011‐12 school year, the school earned an API score of 990 out of a total 1,000, making it the highest-performing school in San Mateo County.

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