By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
Helena Elementary School in Andrew County has been ranked the fourth best school in the state by the US News and World Report.
School principal Kristi Raines is nothing short of excited that nationally people will see the hard work that the students in her school have done.
"Very proud of our students, our teachers, we have very supportive families that have helped get both the students and teachers to that point," Raines tells KFEQ/ St. Joseph Post. "I was not surprised, I am lucky to work in a very wonderful school, and I'm just excited that everyone else gets to hear about it now too."
Andrew County residents have known for some time now that Helena Elementary is one of the best in the city, some even moving closer so their student can attend there.
Raines says she's excited that people nationally will now know about Helena, and says the work to get to this ranking started long before her.
"The ranking was based on 2018-19 MAP scores, and since 2020 we had COVID and didn't end up taking the MAP test that year, so this has definitely been in the works for several years," Raines says. "It really started with the PLC process, and the teachers working together as teams to improve student scores."
Raines is in her second year in the position and says this ranking definitely sets the bar high, but she's also excited to see the community get recognized.
"It makes me happy to get our little community on everyone's radar" Raines says happily. "I know that we have a wonderful school, and it's awesome to hear the parents coming who say we were looking for a house in the area so that our kids could go to school here, or we have second and third generation kids whose parents, grandparents, great grandparents went to school here."
Raines says to maintain this ranking the school has already been starting some practices and looking at student work, striving to continue that climb in the rankings.
You can find the full list of elementary school rankings in Missouri HERE.