2 Warsaw Schools Named Four Star Schools

Two Warsaw Schools have been named Four Star Schools by the Indiana Department of Education.

For Jefferson Elementary School, Principal Dennis Duncan said this is the first year for the award for the school in the 15 years he has been there. Eisenhower received the recognition for a tenth time, but it's been about three years since the last time Eisenhower received the honor.

"This has just been a goal of our school for awhile. To get recognition from the Department of Education is a good thing for our school," said Duncan.

"I think it's a fantastic award," said Eisenhower Principal Chris Gensinger. "It lets us know we are among the top 25 percent in math and language arts."

It gives the school a sense of pride for the educators, he said, and they are proud of the students for a job well done. He said his school received the award previously for school years 1992 through 2001. The award this time is for the 2004-05 school year.

According to the letter to Duncan from Indiana Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Suellen Reed, "This year these awards were earned by 198 of 1,780 schools in our state. The excellent overall achievement of your school is commendable, and I urge you to share this information with all of those in your school community."

The designation as a Four Star School indicates the schools met Adequate Yearly Progress and performed in the top 25 percent of all schools in the state in each of the four areas that are measured. Those four areas are attendance rate, language arts proficiency score, mathematics proficiency score and percentage of students meeting state standards in both English/language arts and mathematics. Only schools achieving full accreditation status can qualify as a Four Star School.

Duncan said Jefferson has a fairly high percentage of English as a Second Language students. "We've worked hard to try to meet the needs of those kids," he said.

The teachers, Duncan said, want all their students to succeed. "Our staff has done lots and lots of extra work ... to work harder to teach the kids who are harder to reach."

When the recognition comes in for their efforts, like the Four Star School honor, Duncan said it's "very gratifying" and it says a lot about the kids, too, that they are willing to work harder.

Gensinger said the gap for Eisenhower from school year 1999-2001 to 2004-05 was because of attendance.

"We had an attendance issue for awhile," he said. "We fell below the mark, but we are back where we should be now."

With Claypool, Atwood and Silver Lake elementary schools closed, all the Claypool students now attend Eisenhower. But that student body increase, Gensinger said, didn't make Eisenhower's scores go down.

"It's nice to see us return to an award like this even though we added 120 kids. It didn't make our scores go down," he said.

The award shows prior Claypool students are well-educated and are helping Eisenhower.