NEW ALBANY, Ind. | President Bush's hour-long visit to a southern Indiana grade school stirred excitement Friday, with the community taking on a red, white and blue tint.

Some living in the neighborhood of mostly one-story bungalow homes surrounding Silver Street Elementary School put out flags along with homemade signs to greet the president. Later, dozens of students wearing American flag stickers on their shirts filed into the school's gymnasium before Bush's arrival.

Michael Wells displayed red, white and blue bunting and streamers on the porch of his home across from the school to welcome the president.

"Regardless of your political affiliation, or what you think of the war, it's still the leader of our nation," said Wells, who did not vote for Bush. "I'm 45 and I've never seen anything like that in my life."

The purpose of Bush's trip to the city just across the Ohio River from Louisville, Ky., was to build support for Congress to renew the No Child Left Behind law.

Before his speech, he visited with kindergartners wiggling in tiny blue seats anticipating sharing their math lesson with the president. They told him it was the birthday of children's poet Dr. Seuss.

"Open up your bag of M&Ms," teacher Beverly Juliot told the children. "Just like Dr. Seuss wrote sentences with words, we're going to learn how to write sentences with numbers today."

Bush also visited with fifth graders who were learning about the Declaration of Independence. They asked Bush to sign his name in large letters -- like John Hancock signed the Declaration of Independence -- to their Declaration of Patriotism in which they pledged to be strong U.S. citizens.

They also showed him pictures of others who signed the Declaration of Independence.

"I know who that is -- with the kite," Bush said. "Ben Franklin."

When he spoke later in the school's gym, he offered the school as a prime example of what happens when educators set high standards and then measure them.

"I appreciate so very much that this school has met state standards for progress under No Child Left Behind every year since 2002," Bush said as the roughly 220 people who filled the gym broke into applause.

Gov. Mitch Daniels, who spent two years as Bush's White House budget director, introduced Bush at the school and the president praised Daniels as he started his speech.

"I can talk confidently about the schools here in Indiana, because you've got a governor who will prioritize education," Bush said. "I used to say to people, public education is to a state what national defense is to the federal government. It ought to be the number one priority, and I know Mitch is making it so."

Others joining Bush during the visit were Democratic U.S. Rep. Baron Hill, who represents the New Albany area, and the man Hill beat in November's election, former Republican Rep. Mike Sodrel. After the speech, Bush was off to a fundraiser in Louisville for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

Bush last traveled to Indiana in October, attending a campaign rally in Sellersburg for Sodrel.

Chris Rowe and his fiance Cassandra Wycoff spent part of the sunny, breezy morning on Rowe's front yard, watching security officials comb the school yard across the street before Bush arrived. They saw a moving truck pull up to the school, with what looked to be several Secret Service agents jumping from the back.

"I'm used to seeing guys in coveralls coming out of the back of those things," Rowe said.

About a dozen protesters gathered near the school before the president's arrival, some holding signs opposing the war in Iraq. They left shortly after the president arrived, said Wells, one of the neighborhood residents.

The New Albany school was picked for the presidential visit because it has done well in state testing despite having a high poverty rate among its 264 pupils, said Dave Rarick, a spokesman for the New Albany-Floyd County Consolidated School Corp.

Rarick said school officials were happy to host the president.

"It's an honor for our students," he said. "It's a lifelong memory."