Photo Caption: St. Patrick’s School will be recognized for excellence during ceremonies in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 12-13. A parish celebration is planned when they return.

WASHINGTON — Years of sacrifice and hard work at St. Patrick’s School in Washington paid off last week when it was designated a 2012 National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education.

St. Patrick’s is one of 269 schools that will be recognized at ceremonies in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 12-13. Dr. Sharon Weiss, principal and superintendent of Catholic schools for the Diocese of Peoria, will attend with third grade teacher Kathy Schlack, who has served at St. Patrick’s for more than 30 years.

Also traveling to the nation’s capital from Washington will be Msgr. John Prendergast, pastor, and Doreen Shipman, assistant principal and the school’s technology specialist. Shipman will become the interim principal when Weiss steps down in January.

A parish celebration is being planned for when they return with the plaque and flag signifying their Blue Ribbon status.

Fifty private schools — eight of them in Illinois — were among the 269 selected this year. St. Patrick’s was one of the schools singled out as an exemplary or high performing school.

It is the third school in the Diocese of Peoria to be named a National Blue Ribbon School in as many years. St. Vincent de Paul School in Peoria was honored in 2010 and Epiphany School in Normal followed suit in 2011.

“I think it confirms for all of our parents . . . that the trust they placed in the school to provide the excellence and academics and faith has been recognized,” said Msgr. Prendergast. “It is really quite an honor to be the pastor here.”

Weiss deflected attention away from herself and pointed to the efforts of the faculty, staff and parish community for making the award possible.

“The quarterback of the team gets all the credit,” she told The Catholic Post, “however, the leader can have all the vision in the world, but if they don’t have those who will help make the vision a reality it doesn’t really matter.”

BUILDING ON EXCELLENCE
Weiss said the quest for excellence started with her predecessor, Sister Mary Ann Schmitz, SMP, who served at the school for more than four decades and left it in very good shape academically and in terms of faith formation.

When Weiss was named principal nine years ago she built on that foundation by working with the faculty to improve the core academic areas. They changed textbooks and reworked the writing program, while advances in technology “have just helped us fly.”

Not only does St. Patrick’s have a computer lab with 39 stations, but each classroom has two to four stations, as well as a SMART Board to facilitate interactive learning. The building has wireless access to equip them for the next stage of technology.

When Illinois Central College updated their science labs one of the grandparents at the Washington school arranged to have some of that equipment donated to St. Patrick’s.

Providing a structure for continued improvement planning was AdvancED. St. Patrick’s was one of the first eight schools in the Diocese of Peoria to be accredited by the North Central Association on Accreditation and School Improvement, a division of AdvancED.

This work resulted in scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills that placed St. Patrick’s in the top 15 percent of the schools in the nation in terms of English language arts and mathematics, which made the school eligible to apply for National Blue Ribbon status. Another requirement is having a foreign language as part of the curriculum and St. Patrick’s offers Spanish to its students.

“ALL ABOUT SACRIFICE”
“This is all about sacrifice,” Weiss told The Post. “We look at our parents who sacrifice to bring their children to a school that’s not brand new, doesn’t have four or five gyms, doesn’t have a full band and vocal program — doesn’t have all those extra perks.

“But our parish sacrifices to help subsidize the school. They have given and given and given just so the school can stay in operation,” she said, adding that teachers sacrifice the salaries they could make in a public school in order to work with the children at St. Patrick’s.

And yet, tuition is one of the lowest in the diocese and Weiss said it’s because of pastors like Msgr. Prendergast who is “our best cheerleader” and works tirelessly to promote the school.

Schlack also credited God, “who is responsible for everything we do. He gave us all of our abilities and I’m thankful for all the gifts he has given to the students.”

Finally, Msgr. Prendergast praised the students for the faith they exhibit through weekly Masses and monthly confession and eucharistic adoration. He called the opportunity to celebrate the sacrament of reconciliation with them “the best day of the month.”

Switching hats to assume the role of superintendent of schools, Weiss said, “Every school should have a parish like St. Pat’s. I’ve always said this is the dream parish.”