ELLICOTT CITY, Md. (AP) - The Howard County school board has apologized for maintaining segregated schools through the mid-1960s.

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The Baltimore Sun reports that school board members read from a proclamation Thursday expressing "profound regret" for segregation and for its treatment of black students.

The proclamation, which was received with a standing ovation, also affirmed a commitment to educating each student regardless of race, ethnicity, gender or disability.

The county did not integrate its schools until a decade after the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Brown vs. Board of Education.

Desegregation was completed in 1965, when officials closed the all-black Harriet Tubman High School and began enrolling all elementary school students in the schools that were closest to them.

The county today has one of the highest-performing school systems in the country.