Wood Gormley Elementary named Blue Ribbon School
Site, 1 of 3 in N.M. honored this year, is second school in Santa Fe to receive distinction
When sixth-graders in Teri Blackman’s class at Wood Gormley Elementary School heard the news over the intercom Thursday afternoon, they sat silently for a second, as if stunned.
Then their jaws dropped, and they smiled and cheered. Their east-side public elementary school had been named a Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education — one of the agency’s highest tributes.
“I never thought I’d be at a school that would be nationally recognized,” said student Arianna Giannelli. “It’s really exciting.”
Wood Gormley was one of only three schools in New Mexico to earn the honor this year and just the second in Santa Fe since the federal Blue Ribbon program began more than three decades ago.
Last year, New Mexico School for the Arts, a state-chartered performing arts school, received the same honor.
The arts-centric Wood Gormley has been one of the best-performing public schools in the Santa Fe district — and the state — for years. About 69 percent of the school’s 340 students scored proficient or better on last spring’s state standardized tests in reading, while nearly 62 percent were proficient in math — far surpassing the statewide and districtwide averages of just over 28 percent of students proficient in language arts and less than 20 percent in math.
The New Mexico Public Education Department has given Wood Gormley an A grade for six years in a row.
Still, the national honor, given to schools that demonstrate overall academic excellence or make significant progress in closing academic achievement gaps among their students, came as a surprise to students and staff.
Principal Laura Jeffrey announced the news at 2:45 p.m., just minutes before school ended for the day.
Jeffrey, who started working at the site this year, said credit for the Blue Ribbon nod should go to former Principal Linda Besett and the school’s teachers and staff members.
Speaking by phone, Besett, who served as principal at Wood Gormley for nine years before retiring, said that as a leader, she would say, “Here’s the direction you need to go toward.”
That direction included helping students master the state’s Common Core standards and achieve scores showing proficiency on annual tests, as well as holding discussions with students and teachers about students’
progress through the school year.
“Sometimes we’d have to say, ‘You’re not there yet,’ ” Besett said.
“It feels good to know that all of our hard work has paid off,” said sixth-grader Sara Pino. The credit, she said, “goes to the teachers.”
“It’s really cool to be in a school that is one of the best in the nation,” said Angelina Passalacqua.
Wood Gormley, which opened in 1926 at its current location on Booth Street near downtown Santa Fe, is unique in being named after two people: grocer and school board member Frank F. Gormley and James A. Wood, one of the district’s first superintendents.
It has about 365 students this year in grades K-6.
With just 27 percent of its students considered economically disadvantaged because they participate in the federal free- or reduced-price lunch program, a measure of poverty, the school is one of the wealthiest public schools in the city.
It also serves one of the Santa Fe district’s smallest populations of minority students. Just over half of its students are identified as Caucasian, 36 percent Hispanic and 11 percent Asian. About 2 percent of the students are black and less than 1 percent Native American.
Districtwide, more than 78 percent of students are Hispanic and about 17 percent are Caucasian. Nearly three-quarters of Santa Fe students are considered economically disadvantaged.
The other two New Mexico schools to earn a Blue Ribbon designation from the U.S. Department of Education this year are Arrowhead Park Early College High School in Las Cruces and Desert View Elementary School in Sunland Park.