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St. Thomas More Parish School
2006 No Child Left Behind - Blue Ribbon School
St. Thomas More Parish School is the first school under the direction of the Office of Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of Denver to receive a Blue Ribbon School Status. We were among one of 250 schools across the nation (only five in the State of Colorado) to be recognized in 2006.
The No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon Schools Program honors public and private K-12 schools that are either academically superior in their states and/or demonstrate dramatic gains in student achievement.
On September 22, 2006, St. Thomas More Parish School received the official announcement from the U.S. Department of Education that it had been named a 2006 No Child Left Behind-Blue Ribbon School. The designation by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings is the highest to be bestowed on a select number of schools in the nation each year.
How did we get there ... a few School Advisory Committee parents discovered that St. Thomas More Parish School met the initial criteria for the application, in particular, ITBS scores in the top 10% of the nation and a core foreign language program in the upper grades. School principal, Paul Mott, developed a "Blue Ribbon" committee consisting of himself, assistant principals Debbie Brown and Barb Markulik, school secretary Linda Trask, and advisory members Michael Kirk, Nancy Shipp, and Jordan Dorchuck. Through many long hours, diligent committee efforts and application draft after draft, the application was submitted and the school was first notified on January 13, 2006, that our application had passed initial screening, and then again on September 22, 2006, that we were one of five schools in the State of Colorado to be recognized as a Blue Ribbon recipient.
A special thank you to the efforts of the Blue Ribbon committee members, STM faculty and staff - in particular our teachers, plus our parents, students and volunteers - as without all of you working together, St. Thomas More Parish School would not be the award winning school we are today!