Fieldcrest South celebrates blue ribbon award

Monday, October 15, 2007 - Posted 1:08:12 PM


Todd Zoellick of the U.S. Department of Education presents the blue ribbon to Fieldcrest Superintendent Randy Vincent and Fieldcrest South Principal Dorrine Sokl.

Fieldcrest Elementary South in Minonk held a celebration Monday morning in recognition of their receipt of a blue ribbon award from the United States Department of Education for excellence in academics.   Superintendent Randy Vincent opened the ceremony in the school gymnasium saying it was a great honor to receive such a prestigious award.  Mr. Vincent introduced Fieldcrest Board of Education President Joe Kirkpatrick of Minonk and board members Tom Barth of Minonk, and Tim McNamara of Dana.


Fieldcrest South Principal Dorrine Sokn said she couldn't be more proud to be here.  Mrs. Sokl introduced guest speaker Todd Zoellick of the United States Department of Education.  Mr. Zoellick said that Fieldcrest is one of only 19  Illinois schools  to be honored with the blue ribbon award and the only rural school to be so honored.  Mr. Zoellick told the children that he wants them to be proud of their accomplishment and to tell their parents and every adult they know that they go to a blue ribbon school.  

Mr. Zoellick presented a temporary blue ribbon award to Mr. Vincent and Mrs. Sokn.  The permanent bronze plaque will be presented to Fieldcrest teachers at a ceremony in Washington, DC, November 12-13.

The ceremony concluded with a singing of "America the Beautiful" by the 4th grade class accompanied by music instructor Mr. Russell.

For a video of the ceremonies, click on the video section of this website.

Below students sit on the floor of the gymnasium to watch the ceremony.
                        Viewer comments on this article

Michael Stagliano, Ph.D. wrote on 10/19/2007 at 12:02:51

A most joyous achievement for the children and staff of Fieldcrest South. South is only one example of achievement underscoring the fact that relatively small class sizes and caring and dedicated teachers do make a difference. In fairness to the full academic spectrum at Fieldcrest, children at the K-4,5 level generally make the most gains academically. Gains are more sporadic at the 7th and 8th grade level. However, one cannot break out of satisfactory scores unless a strong academic foundation is built in the early grades, and the District is doing just that. Congratulations to Fieldcrest South, students, staff, administrators, board of education and parents for leading the way.

Alice Lindley wrote on 10/16/2007 at 05:50:12

Hey! Hey! Way to go! I grew up in Minonk and am proud of my roots. My all time, all time favorite teacher at Minonk Grade School (the name of the school at the time) was Mrs. Nola Moran. I was the only 'country kid' in the class (we had not consolidated yet) and she and Joanne Oldenburg (a class mate) made me feel at home. I think of Mrs. Moran often and am sorry that I never wrote to her after I left school to let her know how much I appreciated her. So, kids, go to school, get your education and don't forget those fabulous teachers who cared about you and helped you along the way. LIFE IS GOOD! Enjoy!

Fred Baker wrote on 10/16/2007 at 07:27:06

Dave,Thank you for the video's,and your time to do this.

Article/video on Week wrote on 10/15/2007 at 14:19:57

Here's a link to Week's coverage: http://www.week.com/news/local/10551952.html (Dave, if you look quick, you'll see how you look behind your camera :) ). Great job, South!

There currently are no comments.

Submit your comments

 All comments are reviewed for inappropriate language before being published. Your name is optional. Click here to review the guidelines for submitting comments.

Name or Identifier:  
Comments: