FAIRVIEW PARK, Ohio -- There's a good argument to be made that Superintendent Bill Wagner didn't need to be told the Fairview Park City School District is innovative. However, being bestowed with the designation of Innovative District by the International Center for Leadership in Education (ICLE) is something altogether different.

"This is a tremendous honor for us," Wagner said. "It validates a lot of the work that we've been doing to be recognized internationally with such a small group of other districts around the world that receive this recognition every year."

Last fall the district submitted a detailed application, along with a video, highlighting how the Fairview Park City School District aligns with the Innovative District criteria --credible supporting data, passion, student focus, future forward, supportive culture, communication, PR and branding.

"If you look at our strategic plan 1.0, and the planning stages of 2.0, you see a very strong theme of project-based learning," Wagner said. "A lot of that came from our work with ICLE.

"So we applied as an Innovative District because of the combination of our work, our growth and our dramatic improvements and performance that we believe qualified us for recognition."

Innovative Districts are recognized for change, collectively establishing a vision and systematically working together to create a learning environment that enables students of all abilities to thrive.

They each focus on leveraging individual data to make instructional decisions and personalize instruction, balance rigor and relevance in interdisciplinary learning and create equity, access and opportunities for all.

ICLE Founder Bill Daggett visited Fairview Park City Schools and spoke to the staff in 2012.

Now, as a part of its Innovative District recognition, Wagner has been invited to be a guest speaker presenting on the topic "Making Transformative Change a Reality" at ICLE's 27th annual Model Schools Conference, which takes place June 23 through 26 in Washington D.C.

In 2018, 11 districts earned the distinction and received resulting recognition at the national Model Schools Conference. Overall, Wagner hopes the community is excited about the Innovative District designation.

"A lot of times you see all of these neat things occurring around the state and country, and you think, boy it would be nice to be them," Wagner said. "This is an acknowledgement from a major international organization to say what we are doing in Fairview Park is incredible.

"What I would like our community to take away from this recognition is that we can be confident the work that's occurring in this school district is world-class, and it's confirmed by this recognition."