Published: September 16, 2009 09:37 pm      

Blue ribbon for Hager

Ashland — Teachers at Hager Elementary really care about the kids and the kids like them right back, third-grade teacher Linda Mahanna was telling a visitor Wednesday.

Any teacher around here would say the same, and mean it. But just then, Mahanna was interrupted in her recitation by former pupil Rhiannon Douglas, who paused on the way to the fifth-grade classroom to give her an affectionate hug.

The spontaneous squeeze was not at all unusual in a school where kids feel like they’re part of a team, Mahanna said.

If Hager’s students and staff are a team, they’re a winning one. The U.S. Department of Education has designated it a 2009 National Blue Ribbon School — one of 314 nationwide and just six in Kentucky.

“I’m so proud of our staff and our students,” said principal Linda Calhoun. “It’s a celebration of their dedication to student achievement.”

Eligibility is based on schools whose students are in the top 10 percent of the state on state tests and schools with at least 40 percent of their students from disadvantaged backgrounds that demonstrate dramatic improvements in student performance on state tests.

The schools also must meet adequate yearly progress on federal accountability tests.

Private schools also can be eligible for the award, with similar requirements.

“It’s a big deal. Only a few schools in each state receive it. There are very stringent criteria,” said Lisa Gross, a spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Education.

The department nominates schools, which then submit detailed applications that paint an in-depth portrait of their staff, students, curriculum, test scores and instructional methods.

“The award is designed to hold schools up as models for other schools,” Gross said.

Hager’s success starts with high expectations, Mahanna said. Teachers also do their best to provide the help students need to meet expectations. “Somehow it works.”

Hager has a family atmosphere that fosters a genuine affection in its students, said David Hill, who is president of the PTO and has a second-grader and a fifth-grader there. “The teachers get to know the students and they keep those connections as they move up,” Hill said.

His own son, in second grade, still stops to say hi to his former kindergarten teacher, he said.

With three kids in Ashland schools, one of them still at Hager, Joann Craft has noticed a similar connection. Her daughter, now a senior at Paul Blazer High, “still gets excited to see her primary teachers,” she said.

Craft also credits Hager with preparing her children for middle school.

“We work on getting them to think for themselves. That’s half the battle,” said sixth-grade teacher Susan Vance. For instance, on Wednesday her students were doing individual study of their math lesson, sitting quietly at tables poring over their textbooks.

“We expect the best and we get the best,” she said. “With us believing in them and the students believing in us, that equals a blue-ribbon school.”

MIKE JAMES can be reached at mjames@

dailyindependent.com or at (606) 326-2652.