Tunstall was the only high school in Virginia awarded with Blue Ribbon honors.
Receiving the Blue Ribbon with Trojan pride
Tunstall has historically been a high preference school with an incomparably supportive, proud community.
To occupy a desk at THS is,now more than ever, an honor. In receiving the Blue Ribbon distinction, a school must prove that it possesses strength in its faculty, community, and classrooms. The award is initially based on performance in English and Math and the rest, substantial. The nomination was based on the school’s performance in the years 2014 and 2015; however, the honor may only be attained if the school maintains and continues to persevere as the same school it was in previous years.
Tunstall’s Blue Ribbon honor was awarded based off of a vision of strong performance created under the leadership of former principal, Mrs. Barbara Brown. Her leadership was supported by assistant administrators, Mrs. Kirsten Harper and Mr. Ed Newnam. This vision continued to be carried out by Mrs. Harper, Mr. Newnam, and current principal, Mr. Brian Boles.
“What [this] means to me is that we cannot become complacent; we have set the bar, and something I firmly believe is that we will continue to meet and exceed this bar that constitutes our school as a ‘Blue Ribbon’ school,” said Principal Brian Boles.
Once nominated by the State Department of Education, the school was expected to complete an extensive application of grueling requirements. Mr. Boles, Mrs. Harper, Mr. Newnam, and the Director of Secondary and Middle Education, Elizabeth Craig, worked hard in collaborating on the initial completion of the 16 page application. The goal of the application was to highlight the school’s exceptional curriculum, community, and career readiness.
An expectation of the Blue Ribbon honor is that the schools selected portray an unidentifiable gap between education and the “real world.” After completion and thorough review, the application was signed by Division Superintendent Dr. Mark R. Jones and School board Chairperson Calvin Doss. The request for Blue Ribbon honors was put through dissection before final submission; it was sent to the State Dept. of Education with intention to receive suggestions to strengthen the application. After alterations, the principals, with fingers crossed and lungs full with anticipation, submitted the application to the US Department of Education.
On Wednesday, Sept. 28, at 1 pm Mr. Boles announced to the faculty and students that we were now a school of Blue Ribbon honor.
In all, 329 schools were named as a Blue Ribbon establishment nationally. Two hundred seventy-nine of the chosen schools were public institutions and 50 were private. In Virginia there were seven schools recognized and of those schools Tunstall was the only high school awarded.
“There is a large pool from which schools are chosen; exemplary high preforming schools and others that had deficiencies, but worked really hard to close that achievement gap and deserve recognition for doing so,” said Assistant Principal Ed Newnam.
One’s overall take from this information should be that this honor is awarded after extensive review of the schools performance and data, and Tunstall reached that exceptionally high bar.
“The only way that I can describe it is, I feel special to attend, no, belong to the only high school in Virginia that was recognized as a Blue Ribbon school,” said senior Carleigh Coleman.
After receiving the news, Mr. Boles was invited along with one other faculty member to receive this honor on behalf of the school’s hard-working body in Washington, D.C.. The ceremony was held Nov. 7 and 8 at a hotel in Arlington. Mr. Boles was directed to only bring one person to accompany him due to the expectancy of no less than 987 guests; he was asked not to bring relatives or co-administrators.
“I wish I could have taken everyone,” Boles stated.
However, unable to chose, Mr. Boles directed the faculty to vote on who they believed was most deserving to join him in Washington. After the votes were tallied, the verdict was that Librarian Mrs. Linda Yeatts would travel to receive the honor with Boles.
“I felt humbled, honored, and I was really in disbelief because I thought someone had nominated my name as a joke; I was laughing and joking about it. I just see other people as so much more deserving to go, and then I got to thinking about it, I am 62-years-old, I have been in education since 1977, I have been in [education] almost 44 years, I have seen a lot, and I thought, ‘I will never get another opportunity like this,’ so I tried to just receive it as the honor that it was and I was really very moved by it,” explained Mrs. Yeatts.
There were schools from all of the corners of America; including Alaska and Hawaii. Tunstall, an establishment of 1,000 students, stood with the same honor as school districts possessing populations as large as 198,000.
Mr. Boles, like a father proud of an all “A” report card, rewarded faculty and students with a Trojan t-shirt so that whenever they wear it they may be reminded of their hard work and high honor.
“I want students to always remember what they belong to,” stated Boles.
Boles continues, “This honor is worth more than to be rewarded with just a cookie or an ice cream cone – it is a huge deal.”
The honor was publically recognized once again at the faculty’s last meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 15th. District Superintendent Dr. Mark Jones along with members of the School Board office staff attended the meeting in order to congratulate the faculty on their achievement due to their ceaseless hard work. Faculty and staff were honored with a pin to commemorate the award.
“Simply, this honor would have never been received if it were not for the work that every teacher and every student puts in every single day; this honor does not belong to any one person, this was a team effort,” said assistant principal Kirsten Harper.
