'Good Teaching and Hard Work' Helped Port Chester School Become One of the Nation's Best

The prestigious only makes official what students and teachers at John F. Kennedy Magnet School knew all along–their school is a special place.

"We're proud that our school could do it," said Alphany Duran, a graduate of the magnet school who moved on to Port Chester Middle School this year as a sixth-grader.

While the district received the good news early this fall that John F. Kennedy Magnet was one of some 300 schools to win the national award, Wednesday marked the official party.

The celebration at Port Chester's drew political bigwigs from near and far, including the Blue Ribbon program's national director and the nephew of the school's presidential namesake.

"You didn't do this alone—you're a team," County Legislator Martin Rogowsky told the students Wednesday.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., nephew of school namesake John F. Kennedy, handled guest speaker duties alongside Aba Kumi, the director of the Department of Education's Blue Ribbon program.

Kennedy and Kunmi, who took turns manning the Capitol Theatre stage, told the kids they should add one more responsibility on top of all the homework and school activities. Now, Kumi said, the students are role models.

Over a decade, the school's teachers counted progress by notching small victories, Principal Lou Cuglietto said. On Wednesday, they got to relish one big win.

The academic progress, the rising test scores, the intangibles like the sense of family among teachers and kids at the school–add them all up, and it's clear why John F. Kennedy Magnet School earned its Blue Ribbon Award, Cuglietto said. But the award is also vindication, proof that a school with limited resources can give kids an education just as valuable as the lauded academic programs in Westchester's more well-heeled districts.

Winners of the Blue Ribbon Award are picked by a committee within the U.S. Department of Education. The tradition dates back almost three decades, and it's seen changes, among them a wider range in criteria after commentators noted the judges didn't factor socio-economic status, language barriers and other challenges.

The awards are now directly tied in to academic performance:

The two main academic routes are "high-poverty schools (where at least 40 percent of students are low-income) that make dramatic gains on state tests, and schools that score in the top 10 percent on statewide exams," education scholar Frederick Hess wrote in Scholastic magazine when the changes were made in 2002.

Turning their disadvantages into motivation, teachers and kids set their sights higher and raised test scores year after year.

Port Chester is famously diverse, a melting pot of second- and third-generation Italian and Polish Americans living side-by-side with a more recent wave of immigrants from places like Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Peru.

More than half of students district-wide qualify for school lunch assistance; the district has the highest rate of teen pregnancy in the county; hundreds of students are enrolled in ESL programs, and often their parents don't speak English, according to the Council of Community Services.

Regardless of the challenges, Kumi said the tools for success are universal.

 "With good teaching and hard work, each student can succeed no matter what ethnicity or background," she said.

Leaders from Port Chester's other schools say the award will motivate them as well.

Like his colleagues, Port Chester High School Principal Mitchell Combs said he hopes for a ripple effect lasting long after the initial excitement wears off.

"Whenever positive recognition and improvements are made in the elementary and middle schools, it effects us," Combs said. "We're excited to teach those kids when they come up to the high school in a few years."

Regardless of status, every parent has the same request—for their children to be educated and cared for by the best and brightest.

Kennedy Jr., whose son attended Westchester's Fox Lane middle and high schools, praised John F. Kennedy's teachers.

"I'm happy to see a sense of pride return to Port Chester," he said, "and all of you have been a part of that."

The flutes, trumpets, and horns of the Port Chester High School Marching Band closed the curtain on the event, as people shook hands and cheered.

As months pass, the Blue Ribbon Award plaque will hang with pride in John F. Kennedy Magnet School's trophy case, representing one large victory among many small ones.

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