Longtime Johnsville principal goes out on top

Patrick Murray is ending his 19-year tenure as principal of Johnsville Elementary School in Blaine on just the right note. Johnsville was named earlier this year as one of eight Minnesota "Schools of Excellence."

The honor, bestowed by the Minnesota Elementary School Principals' Association, recognizes schools that not only can demonstrate their education strengths but also are able to identify and tackle areas that need improvement.

"What it is is a self-assessment of your school," said Murray, 56. "You look at academics, social aspects, everything that goes into running a school. From start to finish, it took us a year-and-a-half to finish the process."

Murray, who hasn't yet figured out what he will do once he finishes up at Johnsville on Sept. 1, said the school staff, parents and students were all involved in figuring out what the school does right and what needs more work.

The K-5 school, with 687 students, held a celebration of its honor on Wednesday.

Academic achievement was one of the good things.

"In our district, Johnsville probably has been in the top five every year the [state test scores] came out," he said. The district has 28 schools.

When Murray visited nearby Blaine High School recently, he was noticed by some of his former students.

"The number of students who came over to say 'hi,' and they come over here to visit, it's unbelievable," he said.

In the needs-to-improve column, Murray said, the school needs to do better in getting families of English language learner (ELL) students more involved in school life.

"So much of what we send home is in English," he said. "While the children can speak English, the parents aren't totally well-versed in English."

Murray has seen some things change at Johnsville in his 19 years as principal. For one thing, the percentage of nonwhite students has grown.

What is used to teach children in the classroom has also changed, although Johnsville has not seen as much of the revolution in technology as Murray would like.

"Our school should be filled with technology, and we're not," he said.

Before coming to Johnsville, Murray served a stint as a principal in the West St. Paul district for two years and taught third, fourth and sixth grades in the Anoka-Hennepin district for 14 years.

His wife, Mary Beth, is a teacher, and all three of his children either teach or plan to become teachers.

The other elementary schools named Minnesota Schools of Excellence for 2007-08 are: Murray County Central, in Slayton; Burroughs Community School and Hiawatha Community, both in Minneapolis; Oxbow Creek in Champlin; Kimball in Kimball; Nyquist in Isle, and Red Lake County Central in Plummer.