Six Manhattan Public Schools Earn Blue Ribbon Honors, FiDi Principal Wins Bell Award
The principal of P.S. 150, in the Financial District, snagged a prestigious Bell Award to go with the school’s Blue Ribbon designation from the Department of Education.
Six Manhattan public elementary schools were awarded the coveted National Blue Ribbon Award for 2024, and the principal of one of the winning schools was further honored with a Bell Award.
Nico Victorino, principal of tiny P.S. 150 in the Financial District, was named a Bell Award winner, on top of his 241-person elementary school’s snagging an exemplary high-performing-school nod from the U.S. Department of Education.
The other five public elementary school winners of a coveted Blue Ribbon for being an exemplary high-performing school included: P.S. 184 Shaung Weng on Cherry Street; P.S. 124 Yung Wing School on Division Street; and P.S. 77, known as the Lower Lab School, on Third Avenue. Two middle schools will also be able to fly a Blue Ribbon: MS 255 Salk School of Science on East 20th Street and NYC Lab Middle School of Collaborative Studies on West 17th Street.
St. Ignatius Loyola on East 84th Street also made the list.
Established in 1982, the Blue Ribbon Award is awarded to public and private K-12 schools across the nation that show “overall academic excellence or their progress in closing achievement gaps among student subgroups.”
P.S. 150 is a standout among the group of high achievers. While the other three schools certainly have their laurels, P.S. 150 collected another award: The Terrel H. Bell Award, which “recognizes outstanding school leaders and the vital role they play in guiding students and schools to excellence, frequently under challenging circumstances.”
Dr. Victorino, the Bell Award winner at P.S. 150, was just one of nine awardees in the entire country. P.S. 150 is a pre-K-to-5th-grade school on Trinity Place.
”It was a great phone call,” Victorino says about receiving the news. “I started screaming. Everyone in the front office was screaming!” Victorino stresses that it was a “group effort” to get the application done, filling out some 20 single-spaced pages. “Everyone just works so hard here,” said Victorino.
Since winning the award, Victorino feels more trust from parents, along with being more comfortable proposing new curriculums. “I feel like I trust myself more. This gives our school more legitimacy.” Indeed, the principal has noted that tour groups checking out P.S. 150 sometimes outnumber the 241 students. Laughing about the tour sizes, he simply says, “It’s good!”
Being an educator and a school administrator is no easy task. Issues of budgets, building repairs, curriculum changes, and school community trust are daily concerns. Victorino likes it. “It’s fun being in administration in New York City . . . I like the hustle and bustle of being a principal.”
When asked how he helps foster an educational and productive environment, Victorino has a simple philosophy: “Kids have to love school to do well in school.” He stresses that it isn’t test scores that bring kids into school and encourage parents. “Our relationships. That’s everything . . . trusting and respectful relationships.” To him, it is essential that there be full transparency between the school, the students, and their parents. “The kids are running into school,” he says as two 5th-grade girls, arm-in-arm, happily skip across the lunchroom. “They shouldn’t be doing that,” he chuckles and is forced to police the whimsy.
When it comes to curriculum, Victorino is open-minded. When a suggestion comes up for a new class or a new way of doing something, he says, “Let’s try it. Let’s try anything once. Why not? We like to keep the kids happy.” This has led to everything from a Block Room for kids to communally build with large foam blocks to putting a YouTube video of a fireplace on the library TV when the weather is cold. The kids were allowed to start their own clubs, including a crocheting group and a recycling sorting club. “We want the kids to have a positive association with school,” Victorino says.
It appears they do. P.S. 150 boasts averages of mathematics and English Language Arts proficiency at 93 percent and 91 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, the citywide average is 53 percent and 50 percent, respectively.
Victorino is not looking to rest on any laurels. There is another budget decision coming later this month. He may or may not get seven new teachers with that budget. There is the question of a coding class coming about or perhaps some foreign language courses. He’s even looking at bringing back cursive writing, which has been downplayed at many schools in the computer age.
He and the staff at P.S. 150 constantly seek ways to improve. Often, the principal asks himself this question: “Is this a school I would send my daughter to?” If something resembling a “no” comes up in his mind, he goes about figuring out how to fix or improve the area of concern. “If my kid is here,” he says, “What should this place be? If it’s not good enough for her, it’s not good enough for the other kids.”