Honoring Bridesburg Elementary School for achieving the prestigious National Center for Urban School Transformation Excellence in Education Award.

WHEREAS, The NCUST Excellence in Education Award was established exclusively to recognize public schools or public charter schools serving urban communities; and

WHEREAS, Bridesburg Elementary School, located at Richmond and Ash Streets in the City of Philadelphia's Bridesburg section, was bestowed this honor along with eleven other schools across the United States; and

WHEREAS, These eleven exceptional schools will be honored at the NCUST 3rd Annual Symposium, May 8-9, 2008 in San Diego; and

WHEREAS, NCUST helps urban school districts and their partners transform into places where all students achieve academic proficiency, evidence a love of learning, and graduate well prepared to succeed in post-secondary education, the workplace, and their communities; and

WHEREAS, These schools had to qualify for strict guidelines and criteria that ranged from non-selective admissions, be located in an urban community, have a low income student population of 50%, achieve adequate yearly progress, maintain a high attendance, proficiency and graduation rate, have enrollment in special programs and maintain few expulsions and suspensions; and

WHEREAS, Under the leadership of principal Mr. Elmer Boehringer, Bridesburg Elementary School services children in grades kindergarten through fifth grade and currently has an enrollment of approximately 400 students; and

WHEREAS, Recently Bridesburg School has been recognized as the #1 school in Pennsylvania for academic achievement and #3 in significant point gain out of approximately 3,500 schools in Pennsylvania; now therefore

THE CITY COUNCIL OF PHILADELPHIA, Extends our congratulations to the Bridesburg Elementary School for its outstanding achievement of winning the NCUST Excellence Award in Education.

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