SEDGWICK COUNTY, Kan. (KSNW) – A couple of Kansas school districts celebrated on Friday, but for completely different reasons.
In Sedgwick, R.L. Wright Elementary School celebrated being named a National Blue Ribbon school. This award recognizes a school’s academic performance or progress in closing achievement gaps between student subgroups.
Cottonwood Elementary School in Andover and Morris Hill Elementary School in Geary County were also awarded the Blue Ribbon.
Up in Norton, the elementary school’s reading room was renamed in honor of a Kansas war veteran.
Private Robert D. Stephens died as a prisoner of war, captured during the first battle of the Korean War, the Battle of Osan. He was one of 400 soldiers killed or captured as they tried to hold back advancing North Korean forces while awaiting U.S. reinforcement.
Eisenhower Elementary School, where Stephens was from, named a reading room of its library in his honor. It is part of an initiative of the 6.25 Foundation. The foundation provides small monetary gifts to remember and honor American soldiers who lost their lives during the Korean War.
The school was presented with a $5,000 heck from the 6.25 Foundation, which honors fallen soldiers, to help fund the reading room and library.