The Cullman County School System and Superintendent Shane Barnette received special recognition Tuesday night as Barnette was named the first Blue Ribbon School Superintendent in the nation.

Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence CEO Judy Warden attended Tuesday night’s meeting of the Cullman County School School Board to present the honor to Barnette and his work to prepare students for college, successful careers and productive lives in Cullman County.

The Blue Ribbon School of Excellence award recognizes schools for providing safe and welcoming schools where students master engaging and challenging content, she said. 

Schools that are named Blue Ribbon Schools receive a flag to fly that shows off that honor, but Barnette is the first superintendent in the country to receive a flag of his own, Warden said.

Warden said Barnette has shown a clear vision for the system to accomplish what needs to be done to provide a quality education for students, provided leadership to set goals for students to learn and achieve at a high level and has been a great communicator and listener while working as superintendent.

“I remember the first time I met Dr. Barnette, and he truly cares about this entire community,” she said. “He said to me ‘We are doing great things in Cullman County and our schools deserve to be recognized and have the opportunity to grow.’”

Barnette said the real credit for the county’s achievements lie with the administrators and principals at each of the system’s schools, and he asked all of the principals in attendance to stand up and be recognized as well.

“Even though I’m getting the award, I feel like it’s recognition for all of our schools, of what our teachers, students and administrators have been doing,” he said. “Because they’ve been working hard and doing the work, I’ve just been leading them and getting them the support they need to make the magic happen.”

The Cullman County School System’s 20 Blue Ribbon Schools of Excellence are the most of any system in Alabama, and every school in the system has an action plan to either become a Blue Ribbon school or advance further along the organization’s path of achievement, Barnette said.

“They’ve been working through those as a means of improving their schools and improving the learning of their schools,” he said. 

That work has paid off in recent months, as there were several schools that improved their state report card scores by double digits while following those plans, Barnette said.

“That’s pretty impressive, and that’s because of this leadership right here,” he said.