Two Long Island elementary schools named National Blue Ribbon winners

Two Long Island elementary schools have won the right to fly "blue ribbon" flags this year, continuing a long streak of U.S. honors awarded by the federal Department of Education to schools in the region. 

Lakeville Elementary School in Great Neck and South Grove Elementary School in Syosset were both named 2024 National Blue Ribbon Schools, federal officials announced Monday. The two schools are among 21 in the state and 356 in the nation awarded ribbons this year. 

Schools are recognized in two categories for blue-ribbon honors: exemplary academic performance and success in narrowing achievement gaps between different groups of students. Both South Grove and Lakeville are included in the exemplary academic category. 

Typically, applications for honors require several months of preparation by dozens of staffers in schools and district offices. Announcements of winners are often accompanied by pep rally-type celebrations — for example, at Lakeville, hundreds of students dressed in blue cheered the 1 p.m. announcement and shook pom-poms. 

"I am just elated — speechless just now," said Mi Jung An, principal of South Grove Elementary, who spoke to Newsday Monday.

South Grove, which enrolls 420 students in grades kindergarten through five, puts a great deal of emphasis on fostering students' individual academic interests, officials said. An example of the school's approach is its longtime tradition of holding "brown-bag" sessions, where children can choose to listen to experts talk about various subjects while eating lunch. One recent visitor was a cartoonist; another was a paleontologist who passed out small fossil samples. 

"This demonstrates the district's commitment to cultivating the interests and strengths of all students," said Michele Webb, who is South Grove's teacher responsible for academic enrichment. 

In Syosset's system, an enrichment specialist is assigned to each of its seven elementary schools. 

One tradition in Great Neck is a "morning meeting" where students are prompted to share experiences individually with classmates — describing, say, a moment on the downside when they were scared or discouraged, or on the upside when they achieved success. The idea, school staffers say, is to encourage students to stretch a little, even when the subject of conversation may initially feel uncomfortable. 

"We motivate children to take risks, respectfully challenge each other's thinking and celebrate their own unique ability to make positive contributions," Lakeville Elementary staffers stated in their application to the U.S. Department of Education. 

The school enrolls 770 students in grades one through five. 

Emily Zucal, the school's principal, said students' academic performance there is boosted by an emphasis on "sequential and cohesive delivery of content." The idea is to make sure that all lessons in a particular subject and grade level are taught on schedule, so that all students and teachers can be sure that everybody has had access to the same academic content and that nothing has been skipped. 

The key here, Zucal said, is "our teachers are very good at collaborating with each other." 

Blue-ribbon flags and banners are familiar sights in Nassau and Suffolk counties, which tend to win multiple awards annually. Three of the region's schools in Amagansett, Jericho and New Hyde Park took ribbon honors last year; four area schools won the year prior.

Such schools are "raising the bar for our nation's students," U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement. "As we celebrate their achievements, let us look to these schools for inspiration." 

Competition for the federal program is open to private schools and independently run charter schools, as well as traditional public schools. 

By John Hildebrand

john.hildebrand@newsday.com@johnhnewsday

John Hildebrand is Newsday's senior education writer and has covered school news and policy issues affecting Long Island for more than 40 years.