PROCTORVILLE – The report cards are out and the Fairland School District was the only school in the county to receive the highest ranking offered by the Ohio Department of Education.

Wednesday, January 09, 2002

PROCTORVILLE – The report cards are out and the Fairland School District was the only school in the county to receive the highest ranking offered by the Ohio Department of Education.

This year’s report card, which measures data from the 2000-2001 school year, was released by the state on Monday and placed the Fairland district as the top school in the county and the only county school to receive the Excellent rank – the highest rank possible. The state ranks public schools using five categories: Excellent, Effective, Continuous Improvement, Academic Watch, and Academic Emergency.

All public school districts in Ohio have been scored on the report card system since the Ohio General Assembly passed Senate Bill 55 in August of 1997. The law requires the education department to score public school districts, now using 27 performance indicators. Of the 27 indicators, 25 are based upon the percentage of students passing the proficiency tests with the other two indicators representing graduation and attendance rates.

Fairland met 26 of the 27 indicators, joining only 12 percent – or 71 – of Ohio’s public schools to receive top marks. The next highest score in the county was 19, received by the Chesapeake school system.

Fairland superintendent Jerry McConnell extended his thanks to members of the community and the teaching and administrative staffs at the school district for the high marks.

"Through the efforts of students, parents, staff, and our community, the Fairland School District continues to provide our children a quality education while strengthening the district’s tradition of academic excellence," McConnell said.

Lawrence County’s remaining six public school districts all received the "Continuous Improvement" ranking.

Lawrence County Superintendent of Schools, Harold Schafer, said Fairland’s ranking was "something to be proud of," adding, "I think our schools are some of the best around."

As for the ranking of the other schools, Shafer said, "they have issues to deal with, but they didn’t miss points by very much – one, two points – from getting another indicator point on the report card. It won’t be long before all our schools are right there on top."