U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona visited the Perry Elementary School Thursday afternoon in order to congratulate the students, faculty and staff on attaining the status of a National Blue Ribbon School.
The visit began with a photo session at Dewey Field, where all 780 students of the Perry Elementary School posed with the secretary and local leaders of the school in their celebratory T-shirts, provided by sponsors the Progressive Foundry, Tyson Fresh Meats, Raccoon Valley Bank, City State Bank and No Lawns Left Behind.
Cardona, who began his career as a fourth grade teacher in Connecticut and later became an elementary school principal, praised the Perry school’s recognition as a National Blue Ribbon School as “quite an accomplishment” that deserved congratulations from the whole community.
“You can tell within the first five seconds that you walk into a school if there’s a positive culture,” Cardona said. “It’s no surprise to me that Perry Elementary’s a Blue Ribbon School. You can have all the best strategies you want, but if you don’t have a culture of belonging and of students getting involved in the team here and of staff feeling supported, you’re not going to see that.”
A total of 353 schools were recognized nationwide as National Blue Ribbon Schools in 2023. The recognition is based on a school’s overall academic performance or progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups. The award was established in 1982.
“The honorees for our 2023 National Blue Ribbon Schools Award have set a national example for what it means to raise the bar in education,” Cardona said. “The leaders, educators and staff at our National Blue Ribbon Schools continually inspire me with their dedication to fostering academic excellence and building positive school cultures that support students of all backgrounds to thrive academically, socially and emotionally. As the Biden-Harris administration partners with states and schools to accelerate academic success and transform educational opportunity in this country, we take tremendous pride in the achievements of these schools and their commitment to empowering educators, serving students and engaging families.”
Along with taking pictures at Dewey Field, Cardona also toured the Perry Elementary School and participated in a 45-minute round-table discussion that centered on the critical shortage of teachers nationwide and on the Perry’s successful paraeducator-teacher apprenticeship program. Joining the discussion were PCSD Superintendent Clark Wicks, PCSD School Board member and DMACC Director Eddie Diaz, Perry Elementary School Principal Dr. Ryan Marzen and PCSD Director of Learning Supports Laura Skeel.
The discussion was further enriched by comments from four students in Perry’s paraeducator-teacher apprenticeship program — Autumn Love, Felicia Moe, Melissa Kinney and Layce Chicoine — and one participant in the PHS student-teacher prep program, Callie Steva.
Cardona was particularly interested in what is working in Perry’s program and what challenges it still faces. He noted that when Perry started its program, no other states had para-teacher apprenticeships, and now 29 states have programs, but not all have succeeded like Perry’s.
The uncertainty of continued state funding for the apprenticeship program is its biggest challenge, the Perry participants and administrators agreed.
At present Iowa’s governor seems more interested in banning sex education and the history of U.S. racism from Iowa’s public schools, so future funding for apprenticeships remains in doubt.
“Division is distraction,” Cardona said in a recent post on X. “At the end of the day, we all want our children to have the best education possible. That’s why the Biden-Harris administration is listening to what parents, students and teachers need and investing in our public schools.”
