Broadmoor celebrates its A
New Mexico secretary of education designate Christopher Ruszkowski had a busy day Monday as he traveled through southeast New Mexico presenting banners to schools who received a grade of A as a result of scores on last year’s PARRC test.
Christopher Ruszkowski, PED secretary, was at Broadmoor Elementary in Hobbs as the school was celebrated for receiving an A grade. Ruszkowski told the school’s faculty, staff and student body that of the 89 school districts in New Mexico “121 campuses have earned an A.”
“Hobbs is one of the largest school districts in the state,” Ruszkowski said. “Most school districts have fewer than 5,000 students and Hobbs has more than 10,000. Earning an A is a really important achievement and it’s due to the hard work of your teachers. Kids, look at your teachers and say, ‘Thank you.”
The student body, which was seated in the bleachers of the school gymnasium, responded with a resounding “Thank you.”
Ruszkowski continued his presentation speech by enumerating the reasons why earning an A is important to a school.
“It brings the community together,” Ruszkowski said. “It gives us an opportunity to learn what makes an A school an A school. And third, it gives us an opportunity to celebrate success. But we shouldn’t be satisfied until every school in the state becomes an A school.”
Student body president Vinie Lavoie, 10, addressed his classmates, teachers and visitors to the campus, telling them, “Broadmoor is a good school. We have good teachers who explain things to us.”
Lavoie assisted Ruszkowski in presenting the banner proclaiming the school’s achievement by opening the tube in which it arrived and helping to hold it to display it to the student body. He and other fifth-graders posed for pictures with the banner as Lavoie explained, “We got this because we acted in good ways, had good behavior and good test scores.”
Galinda Everhart, who is in her first year as principal at Broadmoor, said the award is “important because it recognizes the hard work of our staff and our students and the endless hour of work for teachers as they planned lessons.”
In addition to parents who were present for the ceremony, school adminstrators including TJ Parks, superintendent; Will Hawkins, director of human resources; Debbie Cooper, assistant superintendent for instruction; school board member Patricia D. Jones; Gary Eidson, president of the school board; and Sen. Gay Kernan, R-N.M.
Eidson said the district is proud of Broadmoor and “we are appreciative of Secretary Ruszkowski coming to Hobbs to recognize our school.
