Bayshore Elementary School students and staff are celebrating the news that their campus has officially earned an Exemplary rating from the Texas Education Agency.

  Bayshore was one of five La Porte ISD campuses that met the standards for Exemplary status based on student performance on the 2009 Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) testing. However, due to state crisis coding following Hurricane Ike, Bayshore was originally categorized as "Not Rated: Other."

  The original school, located at 301 Fairfield in Shoreacres, was flooded during the storm, and students were relocated to five other campuses by grade level and classes.  The agency extended the crisis coding to campuses that were dealing with the impact that the hurricane had on their schools.

  Following the release of state accountability ratings in August, La Porte ISD appealed the "Not Rated: Other" ranking, asking Texas Commissioner of Education Robert Scott to change Bayshore's rating to Exemplary.  Superintendent Lloyd Graham received a letter from Scott on Oct. 28 confirming that the appeal had been granted.

  "In spite of the challenges of moving to a different campus, and with many of our students and staff coping with the ways that Hurricane Ike impacted their own families, our Bayshore Elementary students made outstanding progress and performed well on state-mandated testing," Graham said. "Throughout the year, they maintained their focus on educational excellence, and they are truly deserving of this Exemplary rating."

  Because of extensive damage to the former facility, Bayshore students spent the remainder of the 2008-09 school year at their host schools as the district began construction of a new Bayshore Elementary at the corner of McCabe Road and Highway 146.  Bayshore students and staff will again have cause for celebration when the new school opens in January 2010.