U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings’ visit a “watershed moment” for school

In an editorial on Monday, The Maysville Ledger Independent  called attention to the successes of the Mason County School district and the visit from U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings.   Secretary Spellings’ visit to Mason County was a “watershed moment” for a school system that went from being ranked 126^th out of 176 districts in CATS testing in 1996 to 18^th in 2004.   The editorial calls the visit “the beginning of a new era that promises even greater success.”  To read the entire editorial click here. 

In a week filled with news stories, we need to take a minute to acknowledge a visit from the U.S. Secretary of Education and to salute the Mason County School system for a decade of remarkable progress.

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The arrival of Margaret Spellings and her staff at the intermediate school Wednesday morning was a watershed moment. Spellings had received word of the district’s success through U.S. Rep. Geoff Davis and from others in the state who recognized that something very special was going on in this corner of Kentucky.

In a school district that posts an enrollment of 3,000 students, more than 60 percent qualify for free or reduced priced lunches and almost 17 percent live at or below the poverty level. Administrators report that there has been an increase of 30 percent in the number of students who live in a single-parent home with a household income below the poverty line.

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In 1996, the district was ranked 126th out of 176 districts in the state on assessment tests. In just eight short years, the system ranked 18th of 176, and has maintained a ranking in the top ten percent of districts since. Mason County received the CATS Progress Award in 2004, from the Kentucky School Board Association, was recognized by Standard and Poor as one of 18 districts in Kentucky designated as an Academic Outperformer, and has met all goals established by the No Child Left Behind legislation.

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John Stanton, an aid to Congressman Geoff Davis said he loves to come to Maysville for lots of reasons. But one of the main reasons is because Maysville, unlike many areas, seems to sense that its best days are not in the past, but in the future. He said we honor and celebrate our past, but we don’t live in it.

We think he’s right about our community and especially about our school system. We are extremely proud of the accomplishments of students teachers and administrators over the last 10 years, but we are confident that even better days are yet to come.

Wednesday’s meeting was not the end of a great era in progress for the schools, it was the beginning of a new era that promises even greater success.