MADISON – The Legislative School Performance Recognition Program has selected Heritage and Mill Creek elementary schools for their record of success.

Created within the State Department of Education, the Legislative School Performance Recognition Program rewards public schools that demonstrate high results by ranking in the top 25 percent of public schools. The school grading system is the basis for selection.

In addition, the school can demonstrate exemplary progress by improving its overall annual ranking by at least one letter grade.

These selected schools will receive a Legislative Recognition award of $5,000. The local school can determine ways to apply the award money.

In developing the program, the State Superintendent of Education will request input from parents, teachers, school administrators, State Department of Education advisory groups and other education stakeholders. The superintendent will ask about ways that the program properly can reflect both overall academic proficiency and academic improvements that each public school has reached.

Madison City Schools Superintendent Ed Nichols commended Heritage and Mill Creek for inclusion among only 50 schools statewide to earn the prestigious state award for academic excellence. “The hard work and dedication of our teachers, students, staff, certified faculty and support of our parents are the reason for this honor,” Nichols said. “We are so proud of this honor.”

Madison Board of Education has recognized Heritage and Mill Creek at board meetings in the Central Office.

In an additional academic honor, Mill Creek has been selected as a 2020 CLAS Schools of Distinction by the Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools or CLAS. The CLAS award recognizes school programs that serve as outstanding educational models for other schools in Alabama.

Mill Creek is one of four schools in the region to earn the designation of ‘CLAS school.’ Statewide, 31 schools received the award.

A major factor in Mill Creek’s inclusion to this elite group is its “Read Around the Block” initiative. Teachers and staff members launched an outreach into communities that Mill Creek serves. The school employees traveled by school bus to apartment complexes and neighborhoods.

Many areas had been rezoned recently to Mill Creek, and school families were trying to build connections. Teachers strolled through neighborhoods and apartment complexes, playing music and pulling wagons filled with brand new books and snacks to help build and strengthen relationships with student families in the community.