CELEBRATION PLANNED — Harding Middle School is celebrating its recent designation as a 2024 National Blue Ribbon School with observance during an upcoming pep rally on Oct. 9. Events will be held at Harding Stadium at 12:30 p.m. during a fall sports rally but a banner and flag will also be displayed on the campus. Pictured are, from left, Braylon Jackson, Nahzaray Jackson, Jalen Steve, Joel Elliott, Colton Davis and Alexandra Anderson. -- Contributed

STEUBENVILLE — Harding Middle School is celebrating its recent designation as a 2024 National Blue Ribbon School.

Harding was among 14 Ohio schools to gain the honor from the U.S. Department of Education. Principal Bryan Mills said the achievement will be observed during an upcoming event.

“I believe this designation is given to very view districts across the country. To be recognized for such a prestigious designation is exciting,” he said. “We are hosting an all-school pep rally at 12:30 p.m. Oct. 9 to highlight fall sports, cheerleaders, the band and our recent Blue Ribbon accolade.”

Events are set to take place at Harding Stadium and students are expected to don blue T-shirts and have blue pom-poms for the occasion, plus Steubenville Mayor Jerry Barilla was invited to attend. Meanwhile, a banner and flag will be displayed on the campus to highlight the achievement.

“We will play games and recognize sports, but with the Blue Ribbon we changed the pep rally to include the fact that we received this prestigious honor. We’re excited about it and plan to have Mayor Barilla, too.”

Mills said Harding was nominated by the Ohio Department of Education and applied for the designation, which took a group of roughly 10 school educators to complete. Officials submitted a comprehensive application detailing its school culture, programs, assessments, instructional practices, professional development, leadership, family, and community involvement.

“The state nominates schools that exemplify closing the educational gap and high performance on testing. We were nominated by the ODE and accepted the nomination, then we were to apply within a month,” he added. “The application process is a deep dive into every day and a reflection of our strengths and weaknesses and what we do to improve. We had eight to 10 members involved in the process.”

Mills noted that the application included data-driven details of where the school started and where it has gone, and it also looked at trends through scores, interventions to improve outcomes and other ways to bolster education and a positive school climate. He said it was a huge honor to be recognized and gave all of the credit to the students, teachers, families and community for making it happen.

“It takes a village to make us successful and we’re grateful for everything from our school board and superintendent. It’s not just what we’re doing here; it’s what everyone is doing to make us who we are,” he continued. “It’s important to celebrate our success.”

About 356 schools across America were recognized by the U.S. Department of Education and Harding was among more than a dozen lauded in Ohio for outstanding academic performance. The National Blue Ribbon School program heralds public and private elementary, middle or high schools among two categories: exemplary high-performing schools, which is measured by state assessments or nationally normed tests, and exemplary achievement-gap closing schools for narrowing achievement gaps between different student groups and the overall student body.