Educators celebrate Graves Classrooms of Excellence.Photo by Paul Schaumburg

The Graves County Board of Education's August 2016 meeting was the venue to honor two new Classrooms of Excellence in the Graves County Schools' preschool program.

Classrooms of Excellence is a voluntary accreditation process the Kentucky Department of Education established to identify high quality, state-funded preschool classrooms. The process ensures that children enrolled in the program have the highest quality possible in their early learning environments. Included in the accreditation process is an intensive self-study, several classroom observations that evaluate the environment and teacher effectiveness, the qualification of the teachers and other characteristics of high quality. Currently, Kentucky has 38 Classrooms of Excellence and Graves County has four of them, one each at Farmington, Lowes, Sedalia and Wingo elementary schools.

Pictured, here, from left, are Selise Ridolfi, Graves County Schools' director of special education; Amy Poe, Farmington preschool teacher and Classroom of Excellence recipient; Jeanna Crosslin, Farmington preschool instructional assistant; Courtney Hayden, Sedalia preschool teacher and Classroom of Excellence recipient; Angie Duncan, Sedalia preschool instructional assistant; Melissa Bazzell, district preschool consultant; and Nancy Lovett, director of the Calloway County Early Childhood Regional Training Center.