{"id":44589,"date":"2021-09-24T00:17:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-24T06:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mesa-verde-elementary-school-earns-blue-ribbon-school-designation\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:20:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:20:16","slug":"mesa-verde-elementary-school-earns-blue-ribbon-school-designation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mesa-verde-elementary-school-earns-blue-ribbon-school-designation\/","title":{"rendered":"Mesa Verde Elementary School earns Blue Ribbon School designation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mesa
Mesa Verde Elementary School received a Blue Ribbon Award this week. Students were informed of the award and what it means at an outdoor assembly. (Morgan Mitchell\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

FARMINGTON \u2013 Mesa Verde Elementary School has been named a Blue Ribbon School, making it the second school in Farmington\u2019s history to earn the distinction and only the third this year in New Mexico.<\/p>\n

The Blue Ribbon Program \u201crecognizes outstanding public and non-public schools,\u201d according to its website. The program recognizes schools in separate categories. Within the public school category are the subcategories of \u201cexemplary high performing\u201d and \u201cexemplary achievement gap closing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mesa Verde achieved Blue Ribbon status under the exemplary high performing category.<\/p>\n

The schools are selected based on data taken from state assessments. The scores in English and math are observed over the last five years and those in the top 15% are awarded Blue Ribbon status under that classification.<\/p>\n

Eugene Schmidt, superintendent of Farmington Municipal Schools, attended Wednesday\u2019s announcement ceremony at the elementary school.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a great day for Mesa Verde Elementary, their community and the entire school district of Farmington as we celebrate the announcement by U.S. Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona that Mesa Verde has been named a national 2021 Blue Ribbon School,\u201d Schmidt said.<\/p>\n

He added this made Mesa Verde Elementary School the second school in Farmington\u2019s history to be awarded the Blue Ribbon Award, which dates back to more than 118 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cImportantly, the recognition comes to our elementary for being an exemplary high performing school,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201c\u2026 So what these students and staff did was, dating back to 2017 into the 2020s, show improvement in their academic performance by all of the subgroups as they closed that achievement gap even tighter across the school. So really it is a very big achievement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pam Schritter, principal of Mesa Verde Elementary, said getting the award was humbling. Teachers and students showed grit and perseverance working through the pandemic.<\/p>\n

\"Pam
Pam Schritter, principal at Mesa Verde Elementary School, and Superintendent Eugene Schmidt tell students that Mesa Verde was named a Blue Ribbon School. (Morgan Mitchell\/Durango Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m just so proud of them because they\u2019ve worked so hard and they have that one goal and it\u2019s that dedication to the kids and I think that\u2019s what makes the school so great, and this award (is) something so special because they worked so hard,\u201d Schritter said.<\/p>\n

She added that teachers never ask for recognition, but just did it for the kids.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s why I do what I do,\u201d she said. \u201cI feel like I was put here for a purpose and I\u2019m here to fulfill that purpose and make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schmidt said Mesa Verde\u2019s recognition will provide a \u201croad map\u201d for other schools. The district plans to go back and look at what staff members and leadership did to make it happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a hardworking staff and a great school; they have great expectations of their kids, they look to leadership from principal Schritter, it\u2019s a nice story of success,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cI\u2019m very proud of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

mmitchell@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National award is based on data taken from state assessments<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[155,799,28,1562],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-education","tag-farmington","tag-headlines","tag-san-juan-county-colorado"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86149,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44589\/revisions\/86149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44589"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}