Hartselle City Schools have long been a good example of what public education is all about, and they continue to impress educational experts.

The most recent example is the selection of Barkley Bridge Elementary as a 2011 National Blue Ribbon School, one of only five Alabama schools to receive the U.S. Department of Education’s highest award.

The Blue Ribbon Schools Program honors public and private schools based on two criteria: schools whose students are high performing and schools with at least 40 percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds that improve student performance to high levels. Barkley Bridge was recognized as a high performing school.

A few months earlier Barkley Bridge was named a Blue Ribbon Lighthouse School after undergoing an intensive evaluation process.

Earlier this month, Hartselle High School was recognized by the A + College Readiness Grant Program for having 129 passing scores during the 2010 school year, its first year to participate in the program. No other school in the grant unit came close to matching Hartselle High’s number of AP courses completed with passing grades.

In 2010, Hartselle Junior High School was ranked among the state’s top 10 junior high schools in the state based on the performance of its students on the 2009 Stanford Achievement Test.

Both F.E. Burleson Elementary and Crestline Elementary schools are currently in the process of attaining recognition as a Blue Ribbon Lighthouse School.

These achievements speak volumes for the education opportunities our students are being given in their classrooms. Everyone in the system – from the central office staff to the teachers and students in the classrooms and supportive parents at home – are to be commended for a job well done.