Just one of four in the state of Texas, and one of 32 high schools in the nation, Liberty was awarded the title Model Professional Learning Center on Wednesday with the designation announced to teachers in the library Thursday after school.

“It’s referencing a commitment by the campus to build and support the development of our campus professional learning community which means our collaborative teams of teachers working together to support the needs of students and their classes,” associate principal Jon-Eric Ziaer said. “With the types of learning experiences their designing, with the ways they’re checking for understanding and potentially adjusting their instruction or identifying what interventions they need to put in place to help kids be more successful. This honor reflects that commitment based on a series of criteria that organization had in place.”

The designation places the school as a leader in Frisco ISD for professional learning.

“I think it will be a motivating factor in that we are leaders in the district now,” AP World History teacher Jeff Crowe said. “You know we’re kind of the front runners in terms of how the practices and the dynamics that we have in place here at Liberty. When you when you’re successful at something, I think it motivates you because you know that you’re the best that you want to keep that high level, sustained so I think that’s how that would work.”

As part of the recognition, teachers were presented with pizza on Friday for their efforts at helping the school become a model PLC.

“I think it rewards our campus for work that we’ve been doing over the last couple of years to shift, how we work together,” humanities teacher Sarah Wiseman said. “I think it really reinforces the value of the work we’ve been doing, and will help us to continue to push forward and become better at the PLC process.”