Elmhurst School's Award Not Publicly Noted

ELMHURST, IL – An Elmhurst school was recently notified that it met the criteria for a top U.S. Department of Education award.

But the federal agency has yet to publicly honor Timothy Christian Elementary School and other private schools in Illinois for its latest round of National Blue Ribbon School Awards.

The Daily Herald reported on the matter Wednesday.

In 2019, Timothy Christian High School received the same honor. The award recognizes academic excellence.

In early August, the local elementary school got word of the award, but later the same month, the Department of Education ended the four-decade-old award program.

In an interview with Patch on Wednesday, Matt Davidson, Timothy Christian's superintendent, said his school and others went through a rigorous process to get the award.

The schools, he said, were at the one-yard line when they discovered the agency was dismantling the program.

"That was frustrating," he said.

In past years, the department has honored Blue Ribbon recipients with a ceremony in Washington. In this case, Davidson said, the agency has not even issued a news release to recognize the schools.

"Whether you agree with the cuts or not, I don't think many people think that this makes sense the way this program was dismantled," Davidson said. "They are doing it so abruptly, ending a year-long process."

He said the 54 private schools nationwide that are the latest recipients are working together to gain public recognition. But he said they aren't making a lot of progress.

Davidson said his school earned the honor and deserved public recognition. He said he was grateful that the state government is poised to step in and publicly announce the list.

"We're a faith-based school. There are lessons to be learned here. We can apply biblical lessons. Life is not always fair," Davidson said.

On another note, he said Elmhurst is fortunate to have top-notch public and private schools. Few towns have such resources, he said.

"Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, we all support our kids," he said.

Timothy Christian Elementary School in Elmhurst recently earned a top honor from the U.S. Department of Education. But then the agency dismantled the award program before publicly recognizing the recipients. (David Giuliani/Patch)