Since 2001, CLAS Banner School Awards have been given to schools that have excelled in providing students with the best educational learning opportunities. This year, Russellville High School was chosen along with 14 other schools to receive the 2015 CLAS Banner School Award.
Of the 15 schools selected, RHS was the only one from Alabama.
The criteria that schools must meet to be selected are proven success during the previous school year, educational activities, outstanding student-centered programs and being an excellent model to other schools.
“Russellville High School is certainly worthy of the award,” said Russellville City Schools superintendent Rex Mayfield. “They are very innovative.”
Mayfield nominated the school for the award mainly for one particular class that Russellville High provided to its students. Last semester, RHS offered a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) dual-enrollment class through a partnership with the University of North Alabama in Florence. Graduate assistants and students from UNA helped teach the class to RHS students.
“When we started planning this class last March, no one else was offering a GIS class to their students,” Mayfield said. “This is also the first opportunity we have had to work with UNA.”
RHS was able to offer the GIS class under the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC) instructed by Lieutenant Colonel Norman Lier as an elective to the students. Lier, who acted as the facilitator of the class, was impressed with how well the students responded to the program.
“They really got into it,” Lier said. “They enjoyed that the class provided hands-on learning. The students took ownership of the work they did.”
During the semester, the class worked with the Russellville Gas Department and mapped gas lines located in downtown Russellville.
“I enjoyed getting to use the GPS device called a trimble outside of school and getting to map the gas valves in downtown Russellville,” said Mollie Hester, who took the GIS class at RHS. “We had to take pictures for the Russellville Gas Department.”
Hester, who just received her acceptance letter from Auburn University, is thinking about majoring in geography now thanks to the GIS class.
“I wanted something that was more hands-on learning,” said Hester, when asked why she was thinking about a career in geography. “With geography, I can go to different places and do different things each day. I did not want just a mediocre sit-at-a-desk job.”
Although the class was such a hit, RHS was not able to offer it this semester. However, next year they have plans to expand the program to both the fall and spring semesters.
“Students are interested in what is going on around them, especially technology and how it is being used,” said Mayfield. “We want to help them see how it can be used in real life.”
