See the letter below from Superintendent Wade Callaway explaining this remarkable feat.  Reprint permission given by Mr. Callaway;  emphasis added.  

In early February of 2024, Gruver ISD was contacted by Dr. Garrett Black of the Texas Education Agency(TEA) that Gruver High School had qualified to apply for nomination for the 2024 National Blue-Ribbon Schools Program. Gruver HS’s principal, Delma Haberthur, completed the application and submitted it in early April of the same year. Fast forward to September 2024 and Gruver High School has, in fact, been named a 2024 Blue Ribbon School for “Exemplary High-Performing Schools”.

While this is a feat unto itself, what makes this announcement even more incredible is that it is Gruver ISD’s fifth overall National Blue Ribbon selection; moreover, this most recent award is the third in three years for GISD! But wait, there is more! It appears that this small, rural district in the extreme north-central panhandle of Texas has achieved what no other public-school district in the entire state has ever achieved! This landmark accomplishment appears to be that GISD is the first Texas district in the history of the National Blue Ribbon Program (established in 1982) to have at least three separate campuses and have every campus be selected for this prestigious honor! As if that were not incredible enough, as was stated previously, the three campuses (Gruver Elementary, Gruver Jr. High, and Gruver High School) were able to pull off this seemingly unprecedented task within a three-year period. This is certainly a first! This tour de force of academic accomplishment began in the Fall of 2022. On September 16, 2022 the U.S. Department of Education announced that BOTH Gruver Elementary and Gruver Jr. High School were named as 2022 “Exemplary High-Performing Schools”. It is a testament to these two campuses that they garnered this recognition with data accrued fresh on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic that crippled so many districts around the nation!

In order to qualify to be an Exemplary High-Performing campus it must be in the: 1) top 15 percent of the state in for Reading/ELA and Math; 2) top 40 percent in the state for each subgroup for Reading/ELA and Math; and, for high school, 3) top 15 percent in the state in high school graduation and College, Career Readiness (CCR) measure. The final bit of remarkable trivia regarding all of this is that according to the U.S. Department of Education, “…at least one-third of the public school nominated by each state must be schools with a high percentage of students from disadvantaged backgrounds”. All three campuses qualify for this as each campus is a Title I campus, having at least 40-percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

In a time when public schools are being vilified by some, it is especially rewarding to demonstrate excellence, especially amidst such political and financial turmoil. There is still work to be done at Gruver ISD, but the people in, around, and from Gruver, Texas are extremely proud of the work the teachers, aides, principals, and school board have done!