Bensonhurst’s P.S. 748 marks designation as a National Blue Ribbon School

They are head of the class!

On Friday, December 9, P.S. 748, the Brooklyn School for Global Scholars, 1664 Benson Avenue, held a special ceremony for being recognized as a National Blue Ribbon School by the United States Department of Education.

The school won in the category of Exemplary High Performance, scoring in the top 15 percent on standardized tests in New York State.

Founding Principal Ursula Annio discussed the honor.

“Last month, one of the founding teachers and I went to Washington D.C. to receive the award, but the school community obviously couldn’t travel to Washington so we had a ceremony here for the parents and children. The superintendent was in attendance and we flew the blue ribbon flag,” she said.

Photo courtesy of P.S 748

She also praised the school personnel. “It’s really a testament to the hard work of the staff,” she said.

Annio also was one of eight principals in the country to receive the Terrel H. Bell Award for Outstanding School Leadership, open to principals at Blue Ribbon Schools.

“I hate to speak about just myself,” she said. “It really is a team effort here. I’m just a facilities collaborator and a motivator and a leader. For the school to receive a Blue Ribbon award and for me to receive the personal award is really an amazing honor. I could only have aspired in my entire education career to achieve that.”

David Hamond, whose child attends the school and who is on the school leadership team, was one of those in attendance.

“The Blue Ribbon program recognizes achievement in schools,” he said. “It is a very selective honor.  P.S. 748 was one of only a handful of New York City public schools recognized.”

State Senator Marty Golden sent a representative to present a Proclamation. “The Brooklyn School for Global Scholars has adopted an interdisciplinary approach to teaching,” it read. “Project-based learning has been implemented in all grades to demonstrate the connection between content areas and establish relevance for our students. The integration of hands-on cross-curricular experiences has resulted in higher levels of student engagement and achievement.”

Students were equally excited.

“They were chanting when we got outside,” Annio said. “We did a live stream when they did the announcement by the Secretary of Education so we tuned in and the kids were able to see it. When we flew the flag, we had our graduating seniors come outside and started chanting ‘748.’”

The award meant a lot to everyone involved.

It was very motivating. We have a 59 percent poverty level here,” Annio said. “We’re a neighborhood school, a zoned school, and for us to have achieved this is a great accomplishment.”