National Blue Ribbon Honor

2022 NATIONAL BLUE RIBBON HONOR

Holy Spirit Elementary

Congratulations to all you students, to you teachers, to you school leaders. You obviously have set high expectations for your students; you have created a culture where it is important to succeed academically so keep up the good work that you are doing!

- Mary Stadick Smith, Deputy Secretary for the South Dakota Department of Education

Regan Manning, Principal at Holy Spirit Elementary recalls a conversation at a teacher meeting five years ago, “I shared my goal and aspiration and said ‘we are going to put a blue ribbon on the wall of Holy Spirit Elementary.’”

Regan Manning, Principal

On September 16th, he achieved his goal. Congratulations to Holy Spirit Elementary on being named a 2022 Exemplary High Performing National Blue Ribbon School, the highest honor a school can receive from The U.S. Department of Education.

“I knew we had a team to get that accomplished and today we celebrate that accomplishment,” Manning announced at Holy Spirit Elementary National Blue Ribbon School award ceremony on October 18th.

Not only does a school have to have the requirements below, but the Council for American Private Education (CAPE) is able to nominate only 50 parochial or independent (non-public) schools annually for this distinguished recognition.

• The achievement of the school’s students in the most recently completed school year testing places the school in the top 15 percent in the nation in reading (or English language arts) and mathematics as measured by a nationally normed test or in the top 15 percent of its state as measured by a state test. If a non-public school administers both state test and nationally normed tests, the school must be in the top 15 percent for both tests.

• Disaggregated results for student groups, including students from disadvantaged backgrounds, must be similar to the results for all students tested.

Guest speaker at the award ceremony, Mary Stadick Smith, Deputy Secretary for the South Dakota Department of Education, asked for the student’s help in guessing how many schools there were in the United States. With lots of hands raised, chatter and excitement among the students, she received answers from 3,000 schools to 5 million. With more than 138,600 schools in the United States, and more than 34,500 of those are non-public schools, the impact of the award resonated with everyone in the room.

Smith related to the students by sharing how Holy Spirit Elementary was chosen in the category of exemplary schools and that it doesn’t happen overnight. Just like learning how to ride a bike, it takes hard work, perseverance and practice.

Her final remarks were enlivening, “Congratulations to all you students, to you teachers, to you school leaders. You obviously have set high expectations for your students; you have created a culture where it is important to succeed academically so keep up the good work that you are doing!”

A blue ribbon in heaven is when we look at everything and we treat everyone like God does.

- Bishop DeGrood

Bishop of the Diocese of Sioux Falls, Most Reverend Donald E. DeGrood, was another memorable guest speaker that was able to connect with all students, preschool through grade six.

He shared with the students how to make the Hall of Fame as saints. “A blue ribbon in heaven is when we look at everything and we treat everyone like God does. And we love and are kind and respectful and help other people get to heaven.” As he pointed to the large posters of saints on the walls of the gymnasium, he said, “My hope and my dream is every single one of your faces, God willing, will be up on the Hall of Fame one day.”

Manning closed the ceremony by sharing the school’s strategies for success: relationships and connections. “These connections between teachers and students, parents and teachers, administration and teachers, school and parish—everything is so solid here, and I think that’s the key to why we earned a blue ribbon. Couple that with a solid virtue program. In October, we focused on docility— the willingness to be taught. When you look at that a little closer, our students witness every day how hard the teachers work preparing, planning and teaching lessons. It’s like an obligation [the students] feel to that teacher to work their hardest and do their best because they want to make their teacher proud. The students get to witness their parents as partners with our teachers, supporters and their biggest cheerleaders cheering them on to be successful.”

He also shared the daily reflection from “The Word Among Us” for that day. “Look at your relationships as gifts from the Lord and commit yourself to these people with all your heart. Let them know that they can rely on you through thick and thin. Do that and you will be ministering the blood of Christ with them in a deeply moving way.” His closing remarks, “We are blessed here at Holy Spirit Elementary to not only be able to foster academic excellence but through these great relationships we form, we also minister the Love of Christ through these relationships.”

The ceremony ended with the O’Gorman High School Drumline leading the students out of the gymnasium in a school-wide parade around the building. From the 6th grade students to the preschool classes, the students showed off their blue ribbon t-shirts while waving their blue ribbons as they marched to the beat of the drumline.

All elementary schools within Bishop O’Gorman Catholic Schools work efficiently as a system, teaching the same rigorous curriculum that provides strong foundational skills for continuing education into O’Gorman Junior High and O’Gorman High School. We are incredibly proud of our teachers, staff and students for all their continued hard work and accomplishments.