The almost-400 students at Woodson Kindergarten Center weren’t about to let their principal slip out of town on Tuesday to accept a big award without a send-off.

So, carrying good luck signs and big smiles, the kids bid Principal Jessica Cabeen a safe trip to Washington, D.C., where she will accept her Minnesota’s 2017 National Distinguished Principal award. The award was announced in May by the sponsoring organizations, the Minnesota Elementary School Principals’ Association and the National Association of Elementary School Principals. She will join her fellow state award winners at the NAESP event in the nation’s capital.

Students and their teachers sang, talked about Cabeen’s good qualities (“She dances with me,” and “She takes care of our school,” were some of them) and all waved and wished her well.

Instructors made sure she was equipped to travel, presenting her with a black dress, silver heels, sunglasses, suitcase, tickets and a camera during the send-off.

After asking her students to take care of things while she was gone, she thanked them, gave them an air hug — and was off.

“I am so proud of each and every one of you,” she said.

Cabeen was one of three state finalists for the award, established in 1984 to recognize and celebrate elementary and middle-level principals who set high standards for instruction, student achievement, character and climate for students, families and staffs in their learning communities.

The National Distinguished Principal program highlights the fundamental importance of the school principal in achieving educational excellence for pre-kindergarten to eighth-grade students and reinforces their continued leadership in helping children develop a lifelong love of learning.

Cabeen served as assistant principal at Ellis Middle School prior to being named to the Woodson post in 2012.