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Neighbors | Jessica Harker.Super Intendent Tim Saxton spoke during Stadium Drive's blue ribbon award ceremony Nov. 16, congratulating the school and students for the national award.
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Neighbors | Jessica Harker.Principal Mike Zoccali held the school's National Blue Ribbon award on Nov. 16 during Stadium Drive's award celebration ceremony.
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Neighbors | Jessica Harker.Stadium Drive Elementary School's official national blue ribbon plaque will rotate between classrooms throughout the year before being placed in a case in the school's office.
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Neighbors | Jessica Harker.Students Ally Guerriero, Jessen Hoffman and Antonio McNutt were chosen to hold the honorary National Blue Ribbon School banner Nov. 16 at Stadium Drive Elementary School.
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Neighbors | Jessica Harker.Students at Stadium Drive Elementary all held blue streamers to wave in celebration of recieving the national blue ribbon award Nov. 16.
By JESSICA HARKER
Boardman Stadium Drive Elementary School hosted a congratulatory ceremony on Nov. 16 to celebrate receiving the National Blue Ribbon Award.
Timothy Saxton, Boardman superintendent, attended the event, presenting Principal Mike Zoccali with the award.
“We sometimes don’t realize how prestigious this is, its a big deal,” Saxton said.
Students from every grade at Stadium Drive attended the ceremony, wearing blue and waving blue streamers to celebrate the school’s success.
Zoccali kicked off the ceremony thanking all students and staff for their part in winning the award.
“It’s not us, its the work all of you do every day to be successful and it shows,” Zoccali said.
The event included the showing of the video of when representatives from the school, including Zoccali and Saxton, traveled to Washington D.C. early this month to accept the award.
The acceptance was part of a conference for all Blue Ribbon school’s that included a number of events.
Saxton said one of the main events that stuck with him was the networking cafe.
School leaders from across the nation sat at tables, were given a topic, and given 20 minutes to discuss the challenges and victories their schools worked through.
“It was neat to hear, we are all dealing with the same issues but we are dealing with them differently,” Saxton said.
He said topics included preparing students for success, and what a high school diploma actually means.
“For most of our careers we are dealing with only Ohio people so its great to hear about someone from Alaska,” Saxton said. “It was interesting to hear about different challenges and different ideas.”
They also discussed the social and emotional health of students.
“Mental health has become a huge issue across all our school districts and across the nation,” Saxton said.
He explained that as educators school leaders are often not given tools to deal with issues of this caliber, and that by partnering with professionals they are able to bring light to this issue, a fact that he shared with other schools during the networking cafe.
The Blue Ribbon plaque will be passed around from class room to class room this year, before ending in a case in the main office according to Zoccali.
“We want everyone to take part in keeping it because they all had a huge part in getting it,” he said.
Stadium Drive is the second Boardman school to receive the award, following West Elementary, which received it in 2011.
“It’s a very special award and what’s nice about is they can never take it away from Stadium Drive,” Saxton said.