Sugar Grove Elementary School has been named a 2023 National Blue Ribbon School, an honor not given to a Johnson County school for more than a decade.
The honor is given to schools in the top 15% in the country in reading and math proficiency, which in Indiana is based on ILEARN and IREAD scores. Sugar Grove is one of 11 Indiana schools and 353 schools nationwide to receive the honor. The last Johnson County Blue Ribbon School was Our Lady of the Greenwood School in 2010.
The school’s 40 teachers got the news in a surprise announcement at the school Tuesday. Principal Kristin Rodman revealed the news by playing a video message from Cindy Marten, deputy secretary of education for the U.S. Department of Education.
“We recognize and honor your hard work — intellectual, physical and emotional — in preparing all students to realize their talents and their dreams,” Marten said in the video. “As educators, you’ve proven time and time again your ability to reach, teach, motivate and empower students to overcome hurdles and share their unique gifts with the world. But also know that as educators, all of you have made sacrifices to reach this achievement. Your designation as a National Blue Ribbon School is a testament to your hard work and resilience.”
When Rodman started as principal during the 2020-21 school year, students were reeling from learning loss during the COVID-19 pandemic. To reach this stage of national recognition required a culture shift among staff members, Rodman said.
“We are truly a family here in this building,” she said. “The first priority and all of our expectations of what we do here at school is making sure every decision we make is child-centered and everything we do is what’s best for kids. Sometimes that means we have to go slow to go fast, but we always want to make sure our first priority is the best service for kids.”
In order for students to achieve, they must feel comfortable and loved in their school environment, Rodman said.
“We have to establish the community within our classrooms on a daily basis,” she said. “Our students are seeking connections with others and we’ve really had to be intentional with making those connections with students so that we can continue to move forward. Previously, we would give students academic tasks, but we work to have that connection.”
Rodman will be one of three people going to Washington D.C. to represent Sugar Grove for a Blue Ribbon presentation Nov. 16 and 17. She will be joined by Sugar Grove kindergarten teacher Courtney Hess, who won the Center Grove Teacher of the Year Award for the 2022-23 school year, and Nora Hoover, Center Grove’s assistant superintendent for teaching and learning.
“Our administration makes sure we’re doing what’s best for kids,” Hess said. “We’re very intentional looking at data and behavioral and academic needs and meeting kids where they are. We’re looking schoolwide, not just one classroom or grade level. We’re looking at schoolwide data and where we’re doing well and continuing on that but then also looking where our gaps are and where do we need to fill those gaps?”
Collaboration between everyone who works at the school is key to the success Sugar Grove has had, said Amy Franklin, a fourth-grade teacher at the school.
“Everyone is in it for the kids. The teachers here and the staff, from the teachers to the aides, the custodians, we all work together for the betterment of the students,” Franklin said. “We collaborate, and we put our hearts, minds, and energy into our kids and we love them. We love their families and we just love being a part of their educational journey with them.”
The teachers at Sugar Grove are so successful because they continue to learn and improve, Hoover said.
“This is a very, very deserving building. They’ve taken on huge challenges. Everyone has challenges but when Kristin became principal they had dipped in their assessment data and weren’t getting growth from their students and they created this loving, caring culture that puts students first,” she said. “We are a professional learning community. When we learn more every day it’s an opportunity for our kids to learn more. If we’re not continual learners we can’t be the best for our students.”
CORRECTION: 3:21 p.m. on Sept. 12, 2023
A previous version of this story reported the last Johnson County National Blue Ribbon School was Pleasant Grove Elementary School in 2001. This was incorrect. Our Lady of the Greenwood School earned the designation more recently, in 2010.
