• Christy Todd of Rising Starr Middle School is the Georgia Middle School Association's 2016 Educator of the Year. Todd received the award at an awards luncheon on the last day of the association's annual conference that took place in Columbus from Feb. 21-23.
• McClarin High School's drama team was recently awarded honorable mention in the 2016 National Alternative Education Association video contest. This year's theme, "Soar to New Heights," celebrates students' academic success and graduation from high school. This fall, McClarin High celebrated double-digit gains in its graduation rate, improving by 23.7 percent in 2015. It was the highest percentage increase in the Fulton County School System. In the video, students show creativity and excitement as they share their experiences and talk about alternative educational opportunities at their school.
• Four German language students at Whitewater High School earned gold awards in the 2016 National German Exam, for scoring in the 90th percentile or higher, and they qualify to compete for a travel scholarship to Germany. The four, who are in the top 25 highest-scoring students in Georgia, are Jennifer St. Martin (Level 2), ranked eighth in the state; Caleb Enterkin (Level 3), 22nd in the state; Cameron Walker (Level 3), 22nd; and Patrick Neuner (Level 4), 17th. Five students scored in the 80th to 89th percentile and earned the silver award: Josh Bonner, Rebecca McDonald, Sascha Sutcavage, Anna Soendergaard, and Alison Rudzinski. Six students earned the bronze award for scoring in the 70th to 79th percentile: Dresden Day, Cambria Caliendo, Deepak Joseph, Sean Fish, Kathryn Greenberg, and Aaron Robertson. The National German Exam, sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of German, is administered yearly to nearly 22,000 high school students in the second, third and fourth level of German.
• Christ the King School fifth-grader Wyatt Banks is one of the semifinalists eligible to compete in the 2016 Georgia National Geographic State Bee at Georgia College and State University on April 1. This is the second level of the National Geographic Bee competition. School bees were held for fourth- through eighth-grade students throughout the state to determine each school champion. School champions then took an online qualifying test. The National Geographic Society has invited up to 100 of the top-scoring students in each of the 50 states, District of Columbia, Department of Defense Dependents Schools and U.S. territories to compete in the state bees.
• The Fayette County School Counselors Association has named the 2016 Fayette County School Counselor of the Year for elementary, middle and high school. This year's winners are Kelly Hubbard of Robert J. Burch Elementary, Dr. Tama Trammell of Flat Rock Middle, and Janet Fagan of Sandy Creek High School.
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