Regional Office of Education 47

Meridian Community Unit School District 223, is the first school district to receive a Gold Achievement of Excellence award from the internationally recognized performance-driven organization, The Partnership for Excellence, dating back to the organization’s inception 25 years ago. Established in 1998, The Partnership for Excellence is a non-profit four-state (Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, and West Virginia) cooperative that supports, promotes, and evaluates organizations based on the Baldridge Excellence Framework. The framework’s goal is to improve organizational outcomes based on performance excellence, providing assessment tools and criteria, educating leaders across various sectors, and recognizing industry role models through the only award of its kind. Dr. PJ Caposey, Superintendent of Meridian CUSD 223, stated, “The Baldridge Excellence Framework has been a key element in all improvement efforts at Meridian CUSD 223 for nearly a decade. Over the past few years under the direction of Dr. Joe Mullikin, we were able to improve our knowledge of the framework, our internal practices, and our application of it. To achieve what no other school district has been able to do over the past 25 years is nothing short of amazing and a credit to our team.”

Meridian CUSD #223