Glen Oaks School wins Blue Ribbon award
BY STEVE METSCH smetsch@southtownstar.com August 21, 2012 6:36PM
Updated: September 23, 2012 6:17AM
Glen Oaks School in Hickory Hills has earned the prestigious National Blue Ribbon Schools award from the U.S. Department of Education. It is the first awarded to a school in North Palos School District 117.
Principal Gaylyn Grimm and teacher Debbie Olejarz will travel to Washington, D.C., this fall to accept the award, district spokesman Jim Hook said Tuesday.
Glen Oaks School, 9045 S. 88th Ave., is for grades two through five.
“It truly was a collaborative effort, a team effort,” Grimm said in a news release. “This is a great honor, and one in which we will enjoy for a short time before we get back to work providing the top-quality education all our students deserve.”
For the last 30 years, the U.S. Department of Education has honored schools where students attain and maintain high academic goals. To be named a Blue Ribbon School is to join an elite group: Of the nearly 140,000 schools nationwide, just over 6,000 have received this honor, the release said.
Glen Oaks received the 2012 award based on performance, including students scoring an average of 95.3 percent in reading and 98.9 percent in math on the Illinois Standardized Achievement Test, according to the release.
