|  | Cherokee Heights and Phalen Lake Elementary Win National Partnership School Awards
9/29/2006 3:14 PMPhalen Lake Elementary and Cherokee Heights Elementary won 2006
Partnership School Awards from NNPS, a recognition that only seven
schools in the nation received this year. This is the fourth year
in a row that one of our schools has been honored with this national
award, but it is the first time that two Saint Paul Public Schools have
won in the same year.
Cherokee Heights was honored for excellence in
strengthening and sustaining a comprehensive program of school, family
and community partnerships with organizations including Baker
Recreation Center, Girl Scouts and Paul and Sheila Wellstone Center
(Neighborhood House) throughout the school’s transition to a new grade
configuration (it went from serving students only in grades 4-6 to
serving students from pre-K to sixth grade). Phalen Lake
Elementary School was recognized for the quality of the school’s
leadership, teamwork, action plans, activities, and progress over time.
In addition to receiving an award plaque, both schools will receive
$500 to be used towards parent involvement.
Roosevelt Principal Maria Castro to Be Honored by Boy Scouts Oct. 2
Maria Castro, principal of Roosevelt Elementary School, has been
selected as one of six “pillars of the community” to receive the 2006
Spurgeon Award from the North Star Council of the Boy Scouts of
America. Castro is being recognized for “career excellence, community
service, and for being an exemplary role model for youth and adults.”
She will be recognized at The Pride of St. Paul Reception, Monday, Oct.
2, from 5:15 to 7:30 p.m., aboard the Centennial Showboat at Harriet
Island.
Castro was also recently inducted into the
Neighborhood House Alumni Hall of Fame. The first Latino
elementary school principal in the State of Minnesota, Castro credits
Neighborhood House as an important part of her education on how to form
community partnerships. She attended Constance Currie ChildCare
and Camp Owendigo, and the Constance Currie scholarships she received
enabled her to pursue her degree in elementary education. Neighborhood
House honored her for, among other things, “overcoming the odds to
become the kind of role model that is so essential to children and
youth everywhere” and for her “commitment to build a multicultural
world.”
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