Only one quarter of one percent of all schools receive National Blue Ribbon Award - Read All About It!

Vintage STEM Magnet celebrated, on November 16, 2017, the school becoming a National Blue Ribbon recipient. According to Principal Nancy Mourao's speech given during the school wide celebration, "Assistant Superintendent of Education, Jason Botel, spoke about how rare it is to receive this prestigious award.  He said that only ¼ of 1% of all schools in the United States, public, private, or charter ever receive this award."   This award is for all of our Vintage community, not only the present but the past students, parents, staff, and supporters. You can read her full speech below.

Vintage Magnet's achievement is also highlighted in the following articles.  Please click the links to read more and see some photos.

LAUSD Daily News - https://lausddaily.net/2017/11/vintage-magnet-celebrates-national-blue-ribbon-honors/

KLCD Video (also shown below): https://lausd.wistia.com/medias/x4mlf3fp3u

Daily News Photos: http://www.dailynews.com/2017/11/17/photos-vintage-magnet-celebrates-national-blue-ribbon-award/

 

The following is Principal Mourau's Blue Ribbon Ceremony Speech:
Good Morning Students,
Good Morning Teachers and Staff, Good Morning Vintage Families.
Welcome Distinguished Guests


School Board Member Scott Schmerelson
Local District NW Superintendent, Joseph Nacorda
LDNW Administrator of Operations, Debra Bryant,
Dr. Frances Gipson, Chief Academic Officer
Barbara Jones, Chief Communications Officer
LDNW Lead Instructional Director, Dina Sim
LDNW Instructional Director, Cara Schneider
Director of the Magnet Office, Keith Abrams
Lisa LaSassier, Magnet Office
Ankur Patel, Board member Schmerelson’s office
Cynthia Ronquillo , Board Member Schmerelson’s Office
Ron Rubin, Council district 12
Mauricio Pinto, Complex Project Manager
Cherrill Faruzzi, Hammer Toyota
​
Thanks to all of you for celebrating with us and for your continued support.
Today we celebrate a great accomplishment and honor, 2017 National Blue Ribbon School.  I am very proud of you, students!  You earned this award because of your exceptional academic performance.    We are one of 342 schools in the Nation to receive this honor.

Last week, Mrs. Niki Hyer and I were proud to represent Vintage Magnet, in Washington D.C. to receive this award.  While in D.C., we received congratulatory words from representatives of the United States Department of Education.  Assistant Superintendent of Education, Jason Botel, spoke about how rare it is to receive this prestigious award.  He said that only ¼ of 1% of all schools in the United States, public, private, or charter ever receive this award.  To put it in a sports analogy, of the NCAA athletes who train and are at the top of their game in college and pursue the NBA or WNBA, only 1.1% make it to the NBA and 0.9% of NCAA women’s basketball players make it to the WNBA.  In other words, a highly skilled college basketball player has a higher probability to make it to professional sports than a school has, to achieve Blue Ribbon Status.

To be considered for this award, we were nominated by the Chief State School Officer of the National Blue Ribbon Schools program.  Once nominated, we were invited to apply for the award.  Our application went through two rounds of review and had to meet eligibility requirements.

We received the award for Exemplary Achievement Gap Closing Schools. We are in the top 15% of all schools in the state based on our progress in closing the achievement gap between the state’s subgroups and the state’s all students group.  And for each of our school’s subgroups, the performance of all tested students in that subgroup in the most recent year in both English Language Arts and Math was in the top 40% of all schools in the state.  In other words, students, you worked hard and performed well academically on state tests in order for us to receive this prestigious award.

Students, your achievement was accomplished because of your hard work and also the hard work of dedicated teachers and staff members who encourage and challenge you to develop your full potential.

Students, I know how important your Teachers are.  They create the environment for learning with high quality instruction. With a laser like focus, they implement our vision.  Because of teacher leaders, teacher led professional development, teacher lead committees and adjunct duties, you are academically achieving and exceeding other schools in our district.

Our dedicated teachers, staff, and parent volunteers foster growth in students through a variety of special programs that have contributed to our success.   Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Dairie, a dedicated parent volunteer, lead the garden club.  Mrs. Forbes organizes our endangered animal species club and student librarians.  We have student weather forecasters, robotics teams and robotics classes for fourth graders, student council, and Odyssey of the Mind.  Through our partnership with the Sierra Club, students travel on field trips to complete studies in the Earth Sciences.  Our 4th and 5th grade student play leaders teach the kindergarten, first, and second grade classrooms during recess and lunch play time. Through these opportunities, students learn responsibility and leadership.

Students, your Parents have been key and critical to our success.  Thank you parents and families who support us in many ways.  You keep us moving on the track by assisting teachers, participating in the PTA, going on field trips, managing projects and special events.  Parents, we appreciate your generous donations of time, money, energy, and expertise.

Students, I know how proud you are of our school!  Everything that we do (and here I mean everybody- Administration, Teachers, Staff, Parents, community members) everything that we do is for your academic growth and achievement from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Nights, Fall Festival, author’s visits, book fairs, field trips, intervention programs, and special events. It’s all these combined with skillful, purposeful instruction that make a difference.  Students, your school, Vintage Magnet is an award winning, 2017 National Blue Ribbon School.  

Thanks to our Kindergarten Teachers, Mrs. McElroy, Mrs. Wakefield, and Mrs. Cruz
Now, I would like for the first grade teachers to come forward, Mrs. Jen Hall, Ms. Hoang, Ms. Rodgers, Mrs. Roseanne Hall, Mr. Moreno, and Mrs. Henry
2nd grade teachers, Mrs. Maar, Mrs. Debbie Hall, Mrs. Amanios, Mrs. Rebultan, Ms. Park, and Mrs. Kamberian
3rd grade teachers, Mrs. Apostolu, Ms. Loeser, Mrs. Schonenberg, Mrs. Lopez, Mrs. Doidge, and Mrs. Hyer
4th Grade Teachers, Mr. Rangel, Mrs. Pacheco Mr. Goldberg, Mrs. Liu, and Mrs. Buck
5th Grade Teachers, Mrs. Moorman, Mrs. Rios, Mrs. Jassem, Ms. Converse, and Ms. Atalla
Our Resource Specialist, Mrs. Gaudet
Our Office Staff, Dr. Veronica Gonzalez, Martha Arias, Robin Kaufman.
Our custodians who work nonstop to keep our school beautiful!

We have provided each teacher with butterflies that they will release with their classes.  These butterflies symbolize our school’s theme of all students soaring to their full potential.  Thank you teachers!
I am forever grateful for the hard work of Mrs. Jeannie Doidge, for organizing this event.