READING
- An important step toward winning a 1997 national Blue Ribbon award came in fall '92, when Central Elementary School's teachers took a field trip.
About half of Central's staff spent the day at Lakota's Freedom Elementary School in West Chester, already a Blue Ribbon-winning school. Some of Freedom's staff visited Central. Teachers swapped classrooms - and discovered more in common between the schools than expected.
''Some of my teachers were afraid to go to Lakota,'' said Sherry Parr, principal at Central. ''But, then I heard my teachers saying, 'Hey, we're doing that, too.' And the ones who stayed behind heard Lakota teachers saying how great Central was.''
A confidence builder for Central's staff, the trip convinced them that the school in Reading - with 13 percent of its students from low-income homes and few parents holding college degrees - could compete for a Blue Ribbon, Mrs. Parr said.
Central's Sherry Parr came to the school six years ago from Freedom, where she was assistant principal while the school earned its Blue Ribbon. Familiar with the demanding application, she was determined to bring Central into Blue Ribbon territory.
''Four years ago, I said to my staff, 'What kind of building do you want us to be in five years?' '' she said. ''It took an attitudinal change, that 'Yes, we are one of the better schools, not just in the area but in the nation.' ''
Central's faculty set five goals leading up to the Blue Ribbon win, assigning teachers and parent volunteers to teams to focus on each: More parental involvement, more emphasis on critical thinking, more inclusion of special-education students in regular classrooms, improving writing skills, and finding ways to assess children's growth.
Teaching style now incorporates monthly themes, such as the presidents, which are studied in different subjects. Marge Buckley, a Central second-grade teacher for 23 years, remembers when ''we had a curriculum and we pulled from one textbook.
''Now I pull from so many sources, bring so much more into the classroom,'' she said. ''I think the children get more involved when you work with a theme. And I feel so much more challenged because you don't do the same thing twice.''
Central's greatest Blue Ribbon feat: ''This staff never gives up on a child, as tough as it gets,'' Mrs. Parr said.
''They do intervention, work together with other teachers, brainstorm, work with the parents - whatever it takes.''
