The following article was printed in the January 2001 issue of the "Blue and Gold" school newsletter. For detailed information concerning this award, click on the link below.

The New York State Education Department recently acknowledged what those familiar with the Burton Street Elementary School have known for a long, long time; that the school is among the best in the state.

The state education department recognized that fact last month when it announced that the school had been named one of the state's Blue Ribbon Elementary schools. The award is noteworthy on many counts, not the least of which is the fact that only seven were named across the entire state and Cazenovia is the only recipient this side of Poughkeepsie.

Burton Street School Principal Susan Gorton said she was thrilled with the award. "It validates everything we have known here for a long time," she said. "It makes a public statement about the quality of programs here and the quality of the faculty and staff at Burton Street. "

Mrs. Gorton said the process of applying for the Blue Ribbon Award began in June when she received the application. From there a committee, consisting of faculty members, school administrators, and a school board representative, began charting their course and preparing the application. The committee met each week during the summer finalizing the application before sending it off in the fall.

The application required information about a variety of areas including student performance but also student focus and support, co-curricular activities, school organization and culture, faculty development and leadership, and school/community/family partnerships. While requirements for the application limited it to 40 pages, Mrs. Gorton said the amount of data collected by the different subcommittees could have filled many times more.

She said the application provided an opportunity for herself and the school faculty to do a self-assessment and look at what has worked well and what things could possibly be improved. In addition, the application process necessitated looking at applications from other schools and drawing from their experiences and programs.

"It's important to note that many of the programs we do at Burton Street have been going on for a long time and long before I came here," she said. "A good example is the third grade speech night program. That has become an annual tradition and has been going here for at least 15 years. We have added new things, like the No Put Downs Program and our Good Sports Program but one program is no more important than the other. What we learned from our application was that there isn't just one area where we were so far ahead of others. When you take all the things we do here and put them together, it makes for a pretty impressive package. You could call the application a very big brag book."

The application contained eight sections plus a section on special education. Of those different sections, the Cazenovia application received an exemplary score on six.

Mrs. Gorton said one of the more satisfying lessons learned during the application process was how many educationally valuable things faculty do without even thinking about it. "I can't begin to count the number of times we would be discussing some part of the application and a committee member would tell another faculty person that they were already doing this or that and the teacher would say something like 'You're right. I never thought about it like that."

While the Blue Ribbon Award has been received the work does not stop there. At some point this spring representatives from the U.S. Department of Education will visit the school to validate the application.

"We really need to keep the application alive," Mrs. Gorton said. "Every faculty member received a copy of the application so they know the value of what they are doing every day."