Over a year after Pellston Elementary School won a 2024 National Blue Ribbon award, Superintendent Stephen Seelye still drinks coffee out of a cup with the program’s insignia.

His closet is filled with ties, shirts and jackets, all with National Blue Ribbon branding. His truck has a National Blue Ribbon bumper sticker, and every Monday his elementary school students wear T-shirts that say, “I attend a National Blue Ribbon School.”

“This is the pinnacle of my career so far,” Seelye said of the award. “I’ve not achieved anything that I’m more proud of.”

The award-winning elementary school is part of Pellston Public Schools, a Northern Michigan district located near the tip of the lower peninsula that enrolled 479 students as of the 2024-25 school year. It was one of just 12 schools acros

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