It’s good to be recognized, but it’s nothing new for Washington-area school districts. And sometimes these awards involve Justin Bieber.
Sure, there are the prestigious awards, like Montgomery County winning the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the highest presidential honor given to American organizations for performance excellence. And sure, Fairfax County certainly didn’t mind Virginia’s Board of Education Excellence Award. But on a daily basis, there are plenty of winnings to go around.
Loudoun County school officials announced that Angela Gwynne-Atwater, principal of Liberty Elementary School, was a “reluctant winner” of the Giant Principal’s A+ Challenge. Sponsored by Giant Food, it came with a $10,000 cash prize — but Gwynne-Atwater had to fulfill her application promise to sing Justin Bieber’s “Baby” on the school’s morning announcements.
She’s not only the area songstress: Four Arlington County students will compete March 24 in the third annual “Arlington Idol” singing competition at Kenmore Middle School.
In D.C., Roosevelt Senior High School students garnered $2,000 in winnings at the “Double the Numbers Youth Media Competition.” They created and produced a 30-second video commercial called “Slide Into Success,” as well as a college awareness Web site, to beat out students at two other D.C. public schools and two charter schools.
Three teams of students at Fairfax County’s Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology were named finalists in the annual Conrad Foundation Spirit of Innovation Challenge for their cybersecurity and clean energy inventions. Just another Thursday, right?
On Friday, students at Damascus High School in Montgomery County will compete in the U.S. Cyber Challenge, a competition used by computer security firms to recruit new talent into the field of cybersecurity.
But some of it’s fun and games, too: The basketball team at Alexandria’s T.C. Williams High School won the AAA Sportsmanship Award at the recent Virginia High School League State Basketball Tournament.
Montgomery’s Walter Johnson High School students stopped at nothing to raise $40,000 for the Pennies for Patients charity, which benefits the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We’re talking duct-taping their principal to the wall, speed dating, holding water pong competitions and creating a game show night.
Not sure if that counts as an award, but duct-taping school officials to walls certainly deserves an honorable mention. – Lisa Gartner
