Field trips and programs that accommodate all students make Southside Elementary School worthy of being a Blue Ribbon School, fifth grader Pele Rapp confidently declared to a crowd of hundreds in October.

In September, Southside Elementary School earned its second National Blue Ribbon School designation in nine years, “which is very impressive,” Rapp’s co-speaker Amara Linton said in her speech. The award has garnered attention for Southside Elementary and its students beginning with a student focused assembly in September that was followed by visits from Gov. Mark Gordon, a school-wide assembly and a visit from U.S. Sen. John Barrasso.

He even gifted the school a flag that was flown over the U.S. Capitol building.

Visiting dignitaries

Gordon and Barrasso extolled the success of the students during their separate visits and directly engaged students — both politicians sat in the middle of the group of children while taking questions and learning the students’ perspectives.

“I love schools because they are so, so, so important,’ Gordon said. “And there are lots of components about schools that make them great and you’re the greatest.”

Gordon visited ahead of Southside Elementary’s Oct. 26 assembly, he was given a tour by the fifth grade student leadership team and then stopped into music teacher Katie Sears’ class to talk to the fourth and fifth grade students.

“This isn’t something you win … this is something you earn,” Barrasso said.

He visited the elementary school Friday, to congratulate the students and participate in a question and answer session, where students were able to learn about what his job entailed and how state and federal government works.

Celebrating the ribbon

“Every year the U.S. Department of Education seeks out and celebrates great American schools, schools demonstrating that all students can achieve at high levels,” Principal Scott Schiller said during the assembly. “In the last 40 years, the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program has bestowed more than 10,000 awards to over 9,000 schools, with some schools winning multiple awards. That’s you Southside, you’ve done it twice.”

Southside won its first award in 2014 and the 2023 award was earned using the same criteria. Schiller said it’s awarded to, “those schools whose outstanding teachers go above and beyond to elevate their students’ learning experience.” Schiller also thanked the families of the students and the community as a whole. 

“I would like to congratulate the staff, students, teachers and parents of Southside for being named one of the 2023 Blue Ribbon Schools,” Superintendent Jay Curtis said in October. “This recognition is not just a badge of honor — it’s a testament to this school’s commitment to excellence in education — it signifies that Southside has gone above and beyond…and your accomplishments serve as a model for other educational institutions not only in our community, but in our state and in this nation.”

In the gymnasium alongside the proud Southside students and staff were parents, last year’s fifth grade class, members of the Powell High School band, Curtis, Assistant Superintendent Jason Sleep, school board chairman Kim Dillivan, board vice chairman Trace Paul, board members Laura Riley and Lillian Brazelton, Rep. David Northrup (R-Powell), Sen. Dan Laursen (R-Powell), Wyoming Department of Education Chief of Staff Dicky Shanor, Powell Middle School Assistant Principal Chanler Buck and Special Services Director Ginger Sleep, who previously served as Southside Elementary principal.

When the assembly came to a close blue balloons fell from the sky, fulfilling the phrase on the back of every student and staff members shirt, “Happy Blue Year!”

Southside students and staff as described by the experts

Earning the school’s second Blue Ribbon award was a team effort, said Kim McCaslin, a second grade teacher at the school.

“I think the teachers work hard daily to ensure that all means all in our school, all students get the education,” McCaslin said. “Teachers at Southside build up students not only academically but with confidence. We want children to believe in themselves.”

Fifth grade student Kyler Hoffert does, after meeting Wyoming’s governor and senator, he said he wouldn’t mind holding both positions.

“It would be super hard to manage it, even though my dad has five jobs,” Hoffert said. 

Hoffert and his fellow fifth graders Molina Anderson and Kalia Wisniewski, remember when they came to Southside Elementary knowing their alphabet and learning about math with the help of  a puppet named “Zero the Hero.” Now they know how to find the least common denominator and the standard algorithm.

“The teachers, they help, if you don’t understand anything they take the time to actually show it better for you,” Wisniewski said. “And if you didn’t know it before …the teacher would help those individuals and help them understand it better so they’d all be on the same page.”