Sandy Hook School Wins Award As A ‘Vanguard’ School

By Susan Coney

Superintendent Evan Pitkoff shared some good news with board members at the Tuesday, November 15, meeting, reporting that Sandy Hook Elementary School has been recognized as one of the first Vanguard Schools in Connecticut.

The Connecticut Vanguard Schools Initiative is a public/private partnership designed to focus on school reform efforts that have demonstrated success in improving educational performance for students of all backgrounds. The Connecticut State Department of Education, in partnership with the Connecticut Business and Industry Association, has put in place a process to identify and recognize successful schools and have them share their successful school improvement strategies.

The mission of the Connecticut Vanguard Schools Initiative is to identify and recognize schools where students performance is high, and/or significantly improving, and to share their best practices with other schools to help them replicate effective practices.

Sandy Hook Principal Donna Pagé was present at the board meeting to inform members of the honor the school had received. She and Superintendent Pitkoff had just been notified on the previous day that Sandy Hook had been selected as one of four schools in Connecticut to receive the honor. Along with the prestige of being named a Connecticut Vanguard Schools Initiative school, Sandy Hook will receive a $15,000 award for discretionary use to continue implementing best practices (which are practices that have proven to enhance student performance). The school will also receive $5,000 to share best practices with schools designated as being in need of improvement.

In addition the school will receive public recognition at the local, regional, and state level. A ceremony will take place at the state education department on December 7, with Commissioner of Education Dr Betty Sternberg presenting the award to representatives of Sandy Hook.

Dr Pitkoff congratulated Principal Pagé, saying, “We are extremely proud of the efforts on the part of the principal, staff, students, and parents of Sandy Hook for providing such an incredibly nurturing learning environment. It really is just recognition of a job that they have been doing for a long time.”

Ms Pagé commented later, “It is exciting. This is the very first year of this initiative. I am especially proud of my school; however, we all do our best when we are not isolated and work together. I believe this award is reflective of all of our schools in Newtown. The success is due to the alignment and work that is done in the district as a collaborative team.”

Ms Pagé first learned of the Connecticut Vanguard Schools Initiative last spring when she received paperwork sent to all schools throughout the state by the state Department of Education. She completed the self-assessment and attached required documentation. She submitted the forms this past summer and the school received a comprehensive site validation visitation this fall.

As part of the acceptance of the award the school must commit to sharing its best practices with schools in need of improvement through several venues such as workshops, mentoring partnerships, school visitations as well as other means.

Ms Pagé stated that Sandy Hook received the honor for being a high performing school. A high performing school has at least 80 percent of its students at or above goal in the areas of reading, writing, and math on state assessments for two or more years. The principal looked over the criteria when she first received the paperwork last spring and thought that her school’s performance met the requirements.

She said that she was very proud of the achievement saying that it is recognition of the hard work being done at the school by students, teachers, staff, parents and the entire supportive Newtown community. Ms Pagé also appreciates the sizable $15,000 award. “We don’t have anything in mind that we are earmarking the money for. We want to use the funds for something that will link us to moving forward,” she said.

Ms Pagé was also excited about the prospect of mentoring another school, which is part of the requirement of receiving the award. “I look forward to sharing what we have found to be successful. I look forward to articulating our own beliefs, it brings you to a level of higher performance. I am sure that we will learn and gain insight by working with another school as well,” she said.