Cotaco Junior High School and Priceville Junior High School have been named Blue Ribbon Lighthouse Schools. The schools are the first two in Morgan County Schools to earn the status.

Pat Patterson is the director of secondary education at Morgan County Schools, and said the status marks the schools as meeting a national standard. “With it being a nationally recognized program, there are different standards. These are nationally recognized standards,” Patterson said.

Once the schools have applied for the status, they are evaluated for their performance and undergo an improvement process to earn the designation. “What is key, is that it is not simply an application process. Once they have evaluated the schools, they have the opportunity to make changes to become a lighthouse school,” Patterson said.

Special to the Enquirer
Priceville Junior High School and Cotaco Junior High School have been named Blue Ribbon Lighthouse schools.

Tracie Turrentine is the assistant principal at Priceville Junior High School, and said she appreciated the process behind being named a Blue Ribbon Lighthouse school. “It was not a dog and pony show. This was something that gave us input on how to improve our schools,” Turrentine said.

Kim Crow is the assistant principal at Cotaco Junior High School and echoed similar sentiments about the process of earning the status. “The whole process was non-threatening. We were excited for someone to see not only what we do well, but to have someone tell us what we can do to go from good to great,” Crow said.

Patterson said the process will help the schools to continue to meet higher standards through the next evaluation in five years. “No matter how well you are performing, you can develop blinders for the work you are doing. It provides good, honest feedback that you can put into practice,” he said.

In addition to Priceville and Cotaco, there are five other Morgan County Schools that are undergoing the evaluation process. Patterson says the process has been a goal of Morgan County Schools superintendent, Bill Hopkins. “As superintendent, his vision has always been for all schools to continually improve,” Patterson said.

Patterson said that they hope that Cotaco and Priceville are the first of many schools to earn the Blue Ribbon Lighthouse distinction. “I would like to brag on the faculty, staff and leadership at the schools. They had the courage to step out not only to our district, but for the Blue Ribbon evaluations. I don’t think that needs to be overlooked. It is challenging to put yourself out there and be vulnerable,” Patterson said.