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April 28, 2022
Blue Valley’s Board of Education hosted a special board meeting on Thursday, April 28.
View the 4/28 board brief for more information or visit the Board of Education page on our district website.
The rankings are in and Blue Valley’s high schools are still the ones being recognized at the national level. All five Blue Valley high schools earned top 10 recognition on the U.S. News 2022 Best High Schools list for Kansas.
College readiness and state assessment performance are key metrics within the 2022 Best High Schools rankings. Blue Valley is the only district in Kansas to have more than one school ranked in the top 10 which is a testament to the district’s commitment to meaningful and extraordinary educational opportunities for all students.
Blue Valley North #2
Blue Valley High #5
Blue Valley West #6
Blue Valley Northwest #7
Blue Valley Southwest #9
U.S. News ranked nearly 18,000 public high schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Schools were assessed on the following six factors:
College readiness, based on the proportion of 12th-grade students who took and earned a qualifying score on at least one Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exam (30% of ranking).
State assessment proficiency, based on aggregated scores on state assessments that students may be required to pass for graduation (20%).
State assessment performance, based on whether performance on state assessments exceeded expectations given the school's proportion of underserved students (20%).
Underserved student performance, based on how Black, Hispanic and low-income students performed on state assessments compared with those who are not underserved in the state (10%).
College curriculum breadth, based on proportions of 12th-grade students who took and earned a qualifying score on AP and/or IB exams in multiple content areas (10%).
Graduation rate, based on the proportion of students who entered ninth grade in 2016-2017 and graduated four years later (10%).
More information about the Best High Schools list and rankings is available on the U.S. News website.
Athletics and activities provide opportunities to nearly 75 percent of the entire student population in Blue Valley high schools and thousands of middle school students each year. In this episode of BV unmuted, Superintendent Dr. Tonya Merrigan "huddles" with Director of Athletics and Activities Matt Ortman, as well as Blue Valley coaches Jess Horstick, Anthony Orrick and Matt Shulman.
"I think the lifeblood of our school system is the athletics and activities side of things..." said Anthony Orrick, BVSW head football coach. "It's an important aspect of the development of our kids. It's learning how to work with others and have big wins or big defeats because that's life. We're teaching them life lessons on a daily basis."
The conversation dives into how all the teams and clubs serve as environments beyond the classroom in which thousands of Blue Valley students can grow and find their interests and passions.
Listen to the podcast by clicking the button below and check out the Spring '22 issue of Blue Valley Today to read more about the positive impact activities and athletics have on Blue Valley students.
54 Blue Valley seniors named National Merit finalists
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC®) announced 54 Blue Valley seniors were named National Merit finalists. This number sets a district record and is the most finalists in a Kansas school district this year.
These 54 academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for some 7,500 National Merit scholarships worth nearly $30 million that will be offered next spring. The National Merit program has around 1.5 million participants each year, but only about 15,000 students advance to the finalist stage.
Check out the complete list of Blue Valley’s National Merit finalists online.
Blue Valley Ability Showcase - Friday, April 29
Join us at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, April 29, at Blue Valley West High School for the Blue Valley Ability Showcase! This event is an opportunity for Blue Valley students with special needs to shine! It's a district-wide event that will showcase the talents of students from 11 schools across the district.
There will be an art exhibition which opens at 6:30 p.m. and a stage show with a variety of performances that will begin at 7 p.m. The event is FREE and open to the public.
The transition into parenting teenagers is a time of tremendous change for teens and it can be overwhelming as a parent to know how to help. "Prepped and Ready" is a resource from Children’s Mercy Kansas City that seeks to empower families to address the hard topics that can be very uncomfortable and changes each one of us can make within our own homes to make them safer.
Learn more about Prepped and Ready at www.childrensmercy.org/preppedandready