News
Athens and Lancaster Celebrate Excellent Ratings
By: Cheri Russo
Posted on:
Two area districts are celebrating having an "Excellent" rating on the 2010-2011 state school report cards.
The Athens City School District was given a "Continuous Improvement" rating last year.
Superintendent Carl Martin said, "I'm certainly pleased with the state report card."
But, Martin said the "Excellent" rating didn't come easy. The district had to work hard to overcome last year's rating.
"We've just been focusing on trying to meet these standards. Our staff and students and everyone has been focusing on this and I would think that the fact that we've focused and everyone's been doing a great job probably helped," said Martin.
Martin says last year the district was downgraded to "Continuous Improvement" because some federal regulations were not met. He says it was a real disappointment for the district and this year's "Excellent" rating is a morale booster.
Superintendent Rob Walker of the Lancaster City School District in Fairfield County feels the same way. His district was also given a "Continuous Improvement" rating last year. This year, the district is rated "Excellent."
Walker says last year's rating was because the district did not meet an adequate yearly progress requirement in assisting students with disabilities.
"This is something that we really were focused on all last year. Last year, we did not achieve and 'Excellent' rating, despite the fact that in each of our indicators we improved from the previous year. And during the previous year, we were an 'Excellent' rated district in 2009 and 2008. So, we were very frustrated about the fact that despite improving in every indicator we were rated 'Continuous Improvement," said Walker.
"It was a really great source of pride and joy yesterday at our opening meeting with our faculty and staff to announce that the district was once again an 'Excellent' district," said Walker.
The Lancaster School District starts classes for the year today.
Logan-Hocking was given an "Excellent" rating this year as well. It had an "Excellent" rating last year.
Other districts in the region, like Cambridge, Chillicothe, Gallipolis, Ironton and Marietta were rated "Effective" this year and last year.
Nelsonville-York went from "Excellent" last year, to "Effective" this year.
Both Portsmouth and Zanesville were both rated "Continuous Improvement", which was the same rating they had last year.