ROYAL CITY — Royal School District Superintendent Roger Trail recently was awarded the superintendent leadership award from the Washington Association of School Administrators/South Central Region.

The award “recognizes implementing and attaining exceptional levels of innovative work that has resulted in measurable learning growth for students,” said David Goehner, public information officer for Education Service District 105.

Trail was recognized for the district’s efforts to ensure kids got as much in-person learning as possible during the COVID-19 outbreak and for his “firm conviction in supporting efforts to ensure that students in the Royal School District be in school all day and every day,” Goehner said.

Royal was one of two local school districts that provided a hybrid option, where kids were in school part of the time, from the beginning of the 2020-21 school year. Moses Lake School District was the second. All Royal students were back in school full-time, except those who opted for all-online, by April 12.

Trail said he was outspoken about kids returning to school, and that played a role in the award. He said he talked to his colleagues about recurring themes, like doing what’s best for students and their families, and making those themes a reality in challenging times.

“We often talk about equity and it was frustrating to me that so many children were suffering in a variety of ways being forced to learn from home. While our staff made heroic efforts to reach all of our students, it is clear that distance and hybrid learning are not nearly as effective as in-person learning,” he said.

Trail gave credit to the Royal School Board and district staff for the results.

“I am so proud of our staff for rising to the challenge and our community has been so supportive during the entire ordeal,” he said. “The board provided us with the vision and our staff, administrative, teachers and classified, all did an excellent job of making this vision happen.”