Friendswood ISD is celebrating its new Accountability rating for 2009 from the Texas Education Agency. The district has been rated Exemplary, the highest rating given to ISDs and all six of its campuses are also rated Exemplary.

FISD is the only district in Galveston County to have this achievement. Region IV serves 54 school districts in seven counties and only FISD and Devers ISD earned Exemplary ratings for school districts, not including charter schools. DISD is a small k-8th grade district near Liberty with two campuses.

The Texas Education Agency released the annual rating status for 1,235 school districts and charters operators and 8,322 schools on July 30. Ratings are posted at: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/account/2009/index.html.

Last year, FISD had all six campuses named Exemplary but the ISD was rated as Recognized.

The number of Exemplary school districts rose from 43 in 2008 to 117 this year. The total number of Exemplary schools increased from 1,000 last year to 2,151 in 2009. That represents about 26 percent of the campuses in the state.

Not only is Friendswood one of the best places to live, it's one of the best places to go to school! If you want information about my hometown, please let me know. I'm happy to help.