Everett celebrates ‘Blue Ribbon’ award as feds cancel program

Published 1:30 am Saturday, September 27, 2025

EVERETT — District and state education officials expressed dismay after the Department of Education shuttered an awards program months before an Everett elementary school was set to be recognized.

Whittier Elementary in north Everett was set to be designated as a National Blue Ribbon school, a prestigious award founded in the early 1980s that recognized schools with exceptional academic achievement to success in closing achievement gaps.

But the Department of Education cancelled the program abruptly in August before the award recipients were publicly announced. In an Aug. 29 letter to state officials, a Department of Education communications official wrote that it did so “in the spirit of Returning Education to the states,” the letter read. The letter was shared with The Daily Herald.

“State leaders are best positioned to recognize excellence in local schools based on educational achievements that align with their communities’ priorities for academic accomplishment and improvement,” the letter read. “Awards conceived by those closest to the communities and families served by local schools will do more to encourage meaningful reforms than a one-size-fits-all standard established by a distant bureaucracy in Washington, D.C.”

Whittier Elementary principal Tony Wentworth said he first learned the school would win the award in mid-February, he wrote in an email Wednesday. He received a final confirmation email on Aug. 20 that the Secretary of Education, Linda McMahon, would announce the awards in September.

Wentworth didn’t learn the award was canceled until Sept. 15, more than two weeks after the Department of Education notified state officials the program would be cut.

State officials expressed disappointment over the department’s decision to shutter the award program.

“Across the nation, educators and school leaders work tirelessly to provide our young people with a high-quality public education that prepares them for a promising future and lifelong success. Much of this work, unfortunately, goes largely unrecognized,” wrote Katy Payne, a spokesperson at the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction office. “…We were disappointed to learn that the Department of Education was discontinuing the award, especially as our schools had already been nominated and done the work of completing the nomination process.”

Ten schools were up for consideration across Washington state this year, but it’s unclear how many were expected to receive the award, Payne wrote in an email Wednesday, as the Department of Education discontinued the program before publicly announcing the winners.

As of 2024, a total of 122 public schools in Washington previously won the award, Wentworth said. No other Everett public school had ever received the award. A private school, Northshore Christian Academy, received the award in 2019.

If the award had remained in place, two representatives from Whittier elementary would have been invited to Washington, D.C. to take part in an award ceremony, according to an application form schools used to seek the award.

Whittier staff learned their school received the award during a surprise celebration Friday, where the district superintendent Ian Saltzman and regional superintendent Cathy Woods informed staff at a meeting.

“While the official U.S. Department of Education program has ended, Everett Public Schools is proud to recognize Whittier’s extraordinary accomplishments, rigorous instructional practices, and thriving school culture,” Everett Public Schools wrote in a release Wednesday.

Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.

Correction: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that no Everett school had received a Blue Ribbon award. No public school in Everett had received the award, but a private school received it in 2019.