This year, seven Carroll County schools and one Carrollton City school were named Title 1 distinguished schools by the Georgia Department of Education, and all but one will receive a monetary award for the honor.

Bowdon, Central, Mt. Zion, Roopville, Sand Hill, Villa Rica and Whitesburg elementary schools are all celebrating being recognized as distinguished, along with Carrollton Middle School. To be named a distinguished school, the Title 1 schools had to make adequate yearly progress under the U.S. No Child Left Behind Act for three consecutive years. That is not an easy feat. Still, all the schools except Sand Hill have been recognized numerous times.

Bowdon and Roopville have been recognized six times and have made AYP for eight consecutive years. Central and Whitesburg have been recognized five times and have made AYP seven consecutive years. Mt. Zion and Carrollton Middle have made AYP six consecutive years and been recognized four times while Villa Rica has made AYP five consecutive years and been recognized three times.

This is the first year Sand Hill Elementary made that milestone and was named a distinguished school. Principal Cindy Parker, who has been working at Sand Hill Elementary for seven years, first as a teacher, then as assistant principal and now as principal, believes the achievement is a result of the hard work of faculty and students. When a school makes AYP for three consecutive years, you know it is the school that is succeeding and not just a particular group of successful students, she said.

“It is a huge feat to make AYP any year,” Parker said. “I think that because we try to instill in our teachers that all children can learn, that when you go for three years making AYP that’s more proof that all children can learn, because every year you get a new batch of students.”

Title 1 schools have a significant portion of their population that is economically disadvantaged and receive federal funding to provide extra help for the students. That same federal funding is used to provide a monetary reward for the schools that have been named distinguished. Once a school makes AYP for four consecutive years, it becomes eligible for the financial reward.

After three years, Carrollton Middle School Principal Trent North knows exactly how to spend that money.

“In a faculty meeting I will have with the teachers, I will congratulate them once again on being a Title 1 (distinguished school) and I will tell them, ‘We have $712, now tell me how you want to spend it,’” North said. “Whatever they say, the majority rules.”

Last year, the teachers voted to use the money for poster board paper for the school. This year, it will cover whatever the teachers need for the classroom. The county schools also generally put the money right back into the classroom, Assistant Superintendent Kathy Rogers said.

All Carroll County elementary schools made AYP this year, and Carroll County Schools are adding more and more schools to the distinguished schools list. That’s something Rogers attributes to the system’s continued focus on student achievement across the board.

“Our focus isn’t necessarily on being designated a distinguished school,” Rogers said. “Our focus really, foremost is on raising student achievement which helps us to achieve that accomplishment.”

The system does use test scores and data to help figure out what a child might need, but that is only a starting point.

Sand Hill, for instance, has focused on using programs or teaching methods that have been tested and are proven to work in the classroom. Providing a well-rounded education and an environment where no children get left behind is the secret to student success.

North agreed. The middle school has been able to be successful year after year, because the school focuses not on tests, but on the whole child, giving them the tools to achieve.

“We try to truly, truly work with the whole child,” North said. “We recognize that if we can equip the child to be successful, then when he or she gets to the junior high school, they’re going to rely less on the system and more on him- or herself.”