Recognition for Roosevelt High School that we hinted at last spring has officially been conferred.

“I woke up to some exciting news this morning,” principal Kevin Biggs emailed last weekend. “Our team has worked hard for our students, so this recognition is greatly deserved!”

Bryan Coffey is the Director of Unified Programs for Special Olympics Iowa and the exciting news that Biggs received came from him.

”We here at Special Olympics Iowa are very excited to pass along this announcement. The application submitted by Roosevelt High School to become a nationally recognized Unified Champion School has been accepted! Not only is Roosevelt the first nationally recognized school in DMPS, they are also the first to receive this recognition in the entire state of Iowa.”

A nationally recognized Unified Champion School is one that demonstrates commitment to inclusion by meeting the 10 national standards of excellence(*) developed by a national panel of leaders from Special Olympics North America and the education community.

“A celebration will occur at a later date and we will receive a banner to hang in the gym with the year 2020, just as other sports do when they qualify for state,” said special education teacher Kelly Mackey, who spearheads the Inclusion Revolution at Roosevelt. Ironically, it’s a movement that narrows the social distance between students with and without intellectual disabilities by pairing them as teammates in sports like bowling, basketball and track. “Each year, we will reapply to have another year added to the banner. We are hopeful this will encourage other schools to join the Inclusion Revolution,” she added.

In other words, last year was a banner year for the inclusively revolutionary Roughriders at Roosevelt, and somehow they intend to make this year another one.