By DIANE GASPER-O'BRIEN

dobrien@dailynews.net

Lee Keffer was away on military duty a couple of years ago when Kennedy Middle School received the Governor's Achievement Award from the Kansas State Department of Education.

He won't miss this celebration.

Keffer, in his sixth year as principal at Kennedy, will be present at Monday's Board of Education meeting for Hays USD 489 to accept the award.

Kennedy was one of 12 middle or junior high schools in the state to meet the requirements for the 2008-09 school year.

The Governor's Achievement Award, in its fourth year, honors top performing schools that have reached the Standard of Excellence in reading and math, and have made Adequate Yearly Progress in both those subjects in addition to one additional measure. That measure for elementary and middle/junior high schools is attendance, and for high schools, it is graduation rate.

The schools also must have been among the top 5 percent of schools on the 2008 state assessments.

Jane Botz, who served as principal in Keffer's absence in 2007-08, represented Kennedy the last time the school won the award.

Keffer, a lieutenant colonel in the Kansas National Guard who was serving a year's duty in Kosovo at the time, said it didn't matter who accepts the award because "it really is a community effort."

"It's fantastic for the district, not just for our school," said Keffer, who has been a teacher, coach and administrator in the Hays district since 1992.

"Every building in our district made standard of excellence, and that's the great thing," Keffer added. "For one of us to be able to receive the governor's award, too, is just a little more topping on the cake. It shows the great things that we have going on here in the district."

The only high school from the area among the 17 honored in that division this year was Weskan.

Three other area schools honored in the middle school/junior high division besides Kennedy were Oakley, Thunder Ridge in Agra, and Lakeside Junior High in Cawker City, part of USD 272 Waconda school district comprised of schools in Downs, Glen Elder, Cawker City and Tipton.

USD 272 has made a habit of having several of its schools honored each year.

This year, four USD 272 schools received the governor's award. In addition to Lakeside's middle school, Lakeside Elementary School (K-3) in Downs and Lakeside Intermediate School (4-6) in Cawker City, as well as Tipton Community School, all made it in the elementary school division.

Other elementary schools from the area that were among the 41 that received the award this year were Phillipsburg, Smith Center and Eisenhower Elementary in Norton, which was honored for the third straight year.