In a ‘Cinderella Story,’ P.S. 150 Is Named a Blue Ribbon School

In front of the stairs going to their school in Independence Plaza, children held signs and parents dispensed cupcakes in celebration of P.S. 150’s honor as a Blue Ribbon School. Photo: Carl Glassman/Tribeca Trib

Celebration was in the air at P.S. 150’s morning drop off on Wednesday, Oct. 1, the day after it was announced that the small Tribeca elementary school was named a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.

Smiling students and parents held up homemade posters of congratulations and helped themselves to muffins and scones, as they rejoiced over the achievement of their one-class-per-grade school as a Blue Ribbon school, the only Manhattan school to receive the honor this year.

“It’s a validation of the fact that small schools with tight-knit communities work,” Neeta Vallab, mother of a second grader and two P.S. 150 alumni.

Validation, too, the parents said, of a hard-fought battle to save the school last year against a Department of Education proposal to merge P.S. 150s students into a large, new school in Chelsea. Beating long odds, their tireless campaign to keep the school community together paid off.

“It's an amazing Cinderella story,” said PTA President Wendy Chapman, mother of a fifth grader and two alumni of the school. “[The recognition] is icing on the cake after all of us worked so hard to save the school,” she added.

Or, as an exuberant Buxton Midyette, father of two children in the school, put it: “We’re back from the dead and kicking high!”

“We fought so hard because we knew we had something special here and really worth fighting for,” Midyette added. “We weren’t going to let go of it.”

Every year since 1982 the U. S. Department of Education seeks out and recognizes great American public and private elementary, middle, and high schools where students either achieve very high learning standards or are making notable improvements in closing the achievement gap. P.S. 150 received the award in the high achieving category and will get to grace their building with a National Blue Ribbon flag and use a special logo designated for awardees. No financial support is tied to the award.

“It’s a great morale booster all around and makes us just want to do even better, to keep pursuing everything we’ve done in the past to achieve something like this,” Principal Jenny Bonnet said.

Based on the third through fifth grade high test scores in the 2012/2013 academic year, P.S. 150 was nominated by the DOE last fall and invited to submit an application.

“It was just an honor to be nominated,” said Bonnet who noted that some schools forgo the application process because it so arduous. The school had to submit loads of detailed of information, such as the school’s curricula, goals, philosophy and a lot of straight statistics.

A number of factors likely converged to distinguish the school, Bonnet said, including the new math curriculum adopted last year, along with its content studies (interdisciplinary and in-depth learning of a particular topic), and a strong emphasis on music and art.

In all, 337 schools in 47 states will be honored alongside P.S. 150 in November in Washington, D.C, including 18 schools in New York state and six in the five boroughs.
“I’ve always been really proud of our school,” said Chapman. “Now there is a public way of acknowledging that.”

—Additional reporting by Carl Glassman