When the doors open at Pole Green Elementary School on Tuesday, students, faculty and staff will join in celebrating 10 years of successes.

With a theme of “Great Gators Accomplish Great Things!,” the school noted several accomplishments last year, including receiving a 2010 Governor’s Award for Educational Excellence and the principal being recognized as a national Kagan scholarship recipient.

Rhonda Epling said her Kagan honor stemmed from the school’s use of the program’s cooperative learning strategies. She attended a week-long workshop this summer, which will enable her “to provide additional professional development to my teachers.”

She said the Kagan program is “about teaching children to work cooperatively, engaging students in their learning, and students working in teams and being independent learners.”

During training last year, a Kagan trainer urged Epling to apply for the scholarship, “based on what I could share, how Kagan was being implemented in my school, and I won.”

She was one of 25 nationally to receive the scholarship and the only one from Virginia. “I was very honored to represent Pole Green Elementary and Hanover County (Public) Schools,” Epling added.

As a Kagan scholarship recipient, she participated in a five-day learning institute. “Now I will continue with the training that we’ve already had to promote the Kagan strategies at the school.”

Through the institute, “I got to meet Dr. Spencer Kagan, who is the founder of Kagan learning,” Epling said. “It is a very special recognition to me to receive. I was very thrilled when I got the call that I was a recipient and really took advantage of the training.”

A Kagan trainer will be coming to Pole Green Elementary on Friday, Sept. 3, Epling said, “and she and I will then provide follow-up professional development to my staff and then I will continue with professional development throughout the year to monitor Kagan strategies in the classroom.”

She also said she would continue training and promoting strategies for the teachers. “There are so many strategies you can only focus on teaching them a couple at a time to implement with children; it will be a process throughout the year.”

“It’s very structured with the way you have cooperative learning to make sure every child is engaged and every child is participating to promote their own individual learning,” she said.

With Kagan, Epling said “You create a very safe, comfortable and inviting climate and we have multiple avenues here at Pole Green that we do that with.”

The school uses a campaign called “Fill Your Bucket” that encourages dropping a note in someone’s bucket when that person is seen doing something positive.

In its 10 years, Pole Green Elementary has enjoyed an academic success rate, Epling said. “Students work very hard, teachers work very hard, parents are a wonderful asset to Pole Green.” She called the support of parents, students and teachers “wonderful.”

Pole Green Elementary opened its doors in August 2000 and Epling arrived the following fall as assistant principal. She has been at the helm since Feb. 14, 2006.

The school’s first principal, Mark Allan, left to accept the position of director of standards, curriculum and instruction with the Virginia Department of Education. Epling said he is “a very dear friend. He’s the one who hired me as assistant principal here. He is a very good person to work with on the state department level.”

To mark its 10th anniversary, Pole Green Elementary will host either a late fall or early winter celebration. Epling said the guest list will include “everyone who opened the building, teachers and staff. Dr. Allan will be attending and we will just celebrate together.”

Today’s faculty includes “probably a dozen to 15 of the teachers who opened this building.” Epling said “We have a core group. We are all very excited to do this together.”

Pole Green also has been kind of a parent to Laurel Meadow Elementary School, which opened its doors in 2008. With about 1,100 students, Pole Green saw 500 go to the new school. “We supported that community in opening Laurel Meadow,” Epling said.

The change in districting brought 120 students from Rural Point Elementary School to Pole Green.

Before Laurel Meadow opened, Pole Green’s students were a 50/50 split in attending middle school at Stonewall Jackson and Oak Knoll. Now, Epling said, Oak Knoll is the only feeder school.

Epling said the bond continues between Pole Green and Laurel Meadow. “They’re so connected. We can always learn from each other.”

Today, Pole Green has about 630 students.