Scott, Plaza Park Shine in City Area Schools Winners of Four Star Award

By JOHN MARTIN, Courier & Press staff writer 464-7594 or martinj@courierpress.com

Several Southwestern Indiana schools were announced as winners of Four Star School Awards for the 2005-06 academic year Thursday.

Of 1,870 Indiana schools, 175 earned the award, which is considered the Indiana Department of Education’s highest distinction.

The awards are based on overall attendance rates and student achievement on the 2005 ISTEP test.

Two schools in the Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corp., Scott Elementary School and Plaza Park Middle School, were named Four Star Schools.

Since the award’s inception, Scott has won it several times.

Principal Jane Bartley credited “the hard work of everybody involved. We’ve got the best teachers, the hardest-working teachers. They’re up on the best research and put it into practice, and the students want to do their very best. And we have parents with high expectations.”

Plaza Park was named a Four Star School for the first time in Principal Mary Schweizer’s seven years there.

“It’s a lot of hard work and dedication from staff and parents,” Schweizer said. “It’s a wonderful partnership we’ve developed that helps kids be successful.”

Among area public school systems, the North Spencer School Corp. had the most Four Star Schools with five.

To win the award, a school must meet the Adequate Yearly Progress standard set by the federal No Child Left Behind law and perform in the top 25 percent of all schools in the state in student attendance rates, math ISTEP scores, language arts ISTEP scores and the percentage of students passing both sections of the exam.

* * *

Here are the regional Four Star School Award winners for 2005:

Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corp.: Scott Elementary School, Plaza Park Middle School.

Warrick County School Corp.: John H. Castle Elementary School, Lynnville Elementary School.

Metropolitan School District of Mount Vernon: Maars Elementary School.

South Gibson School Corp.: Haubstadt Community School, Gibson Southern High School.

North Spencer School Corp.: David Turnham Educational Center, Nancy Hanks Elementary School, Heritage Hills High School, Heritage Hills Middle School, Lincoln Trail Elementary School.

Northeast Dubois School Corp.: Dubois Middle School.

Southeast Dubois School Corp.: Ferdinand Elementary School, Forest Park Junior-Senior High School.

Greater Jasper Consolidated Schools: Ireland Elementary School, Jasper High School.

Barr-Reeve Community Schools Inc.: Barr-Reeve Junior-Senior High School.

(c) 2007 Evansville Courier & Press. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.