Voy Spears, Jr. Elementary School
201 N.E. Anderson
Lee's Summit, MO, 64064-1287
Mrs. Renee Murry, Principal at time of Nomination
Blue Springs R-IV School District
VSE is committed to providing a nurturing, personalized educational environment that maximizes potential, promotes life-long learning, and prepares productive citizens for a diverse, global society.
- Black/African American: 9%
- White: 75%
- Hispanic: 7%
- Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 1%
- Asian: 3%
- Native American: 1%
- Two or more races: 4%
- ELL: 1%
- Economically Disadvantaged: 8%
Voy Spears Jr. Elementary (VSE) is a close-knit, student-centered, family-friendly, parent supported school. Opened in 2002, it houses 544 diverse and capable students, including the district's K-5 Deaf and Hard of Hearing program. Due to strong growth within its attendance boundaries, VSE has experienced facility additions, including classroom space, a multipurpose room, and an artificial turf playground surface. VSE also features a walking/running track, which supports its commitment to community outreach, health, and wellness.
As a historically high performing school, VSE strives to increase student engagement, teacher capacity/competency, parent participation, and stakeholder satisfaction, and has made a concerted effort to optimize educator strengths, enhance professional development and effectiveness, fully maximize academic potential, and ensure the most productive learning environment possible. Within the context of a Professional Learning Community (PLC), VSE staff members demonstrate a vision of shared ownership, two-way/open communication, high expectations, and commitment to school excellence. This has led to a common theme -- SFA (Success for All) -- and resulted in the collective decision to throw open classroom doors, confer and collaborate, speak a common language, and work toward the mutual cause of higher student, teacher, and school attainment.
In sum total, the VSE school improvement approach emphasizes essential, inquiry/project-based learning skills embedded in practical, application-oriented experiences that are technology-supported, corroborated by research, substantiated by data, and implemented both logically and sequentially. It's for these reasons overall school performance has improved, and the future at VSE is a bright one indeed for students and staff.