Bay City Tribune

Matagorda County school districts received good news Friday, July 31, when the Texas Education Agency released the official school ratings report.

Three county districts - Matagorda, Palacios and Van Vleck - were rated recognized while Bay City and Tidehaven received an "academically acceptable" rating.

Van Vleck is the only district that had all campuses receive recognized or exemplary ratings.

Tidehaven was the only district to not receive an exemplary rating for any of its four campuses.

While Matagorda did not achieve an exemplary rating, both middle school and elementary school aged children are combined on one campus.

In Bay City, the high school, junior high and Bay City Middle School were rated academically acceptable while McAllister Middle School and Linnie Roberts Elementary received the recognized rating and Tenie Holmes and Cherry elementary schools were rated exemplary.

"We are exceptionally proud of our accomplishments by our staff and students in the mastery of the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS)," said Keith Brown, Bay City ISD superintendent.

Brown said the district will continue to focus on math and science scores this year.

Laura Shay, Matagorda ISD superintendent, agreed with Brown that the science content area would be a focus for her campus as it was the only content area of the TAKS test that was not rated exemplary in Matagorda.

"We're very excited to be back at recognized," she said.

"We attribute that to the hard work of kids and teachers."

All Tidehaven schools were rated academically acceptable except Blessing Elementary that earned a recognized rating.

Suzanne Wesson, Tidehaven ISD superintendent, said the district continues to remain consistent.

"Although the state continues to raise the standards, our ratings have stayed consistent," she said.

"We're just going to continue to work really hard to teach all objectives to all children."

Palacios ISD was rated exemplary at Central Elementary and East Side Intermediate while the high school was recognized and the junior high was academically acceptable.

Vicki Adams, Palacios ISD superintendent, said the dedication of the staff is the key to the district's success.

"They know no boundaries as far as the amount of time, innovative ideas, and hard work they put forth towaalmost on a yearly basis, we're just going to rd helping the students succeed," said Adams.

"Struggling students are just not an option."

Van Vleck High School and O.H. Herman Middle School were rated recognized while Van Vleck Elementary and E. Rudd Intermediate received exemplary ratings.

The Texas Education Agency's Web site indicated that both the number of exemplary schools and districts and the number of academically unacceptable schools increased this year.

"Increasing passing rates on state tests and a new growth measure contributed to substantial increases in the number of exemplary schools and districts in the state's accountability ratings system," according to information from the TEA Web site.

"High school completion rates and science test results caused the number of academically unacceptable districts and schools to increase as well this year."

"The number of academically unacceptable districts increased to its highest level since implementation of the accountability system in 1994," according to TEA information.