Executive Director Dr. Vicki Lambert spoke highly of theincoming class at the Mississippi School for the Arts when sheaddressed the Brookhaven School Board Tuesday night in theirmonthly meeting.

“The most exciting news we have is about our incoming juniorclass,” said Lambert. “We have the most highly qualified class sofar.”

Lambert said 91 students, around 15 of whom have 4.0 grade pointaverages, have been offered acceptance at MSA for the 2007-2008school year. She said this is the highest number of students issuedacceptance in the school’s history, and that part of the reason forthe high numbers is the possibility of adding a literary artsprogram.

The school currently can house 170 students in the dormitoryareas. If all 91 students accept invitations to attend in the fall,it would put MSA’s overall attendance between 140 and 150.

Things are also going well in other areas, said Lambert, whocited several awards children had won recently. Honors include thethe school’s much-acclaimed choir being invited to sing at CarnegieHall for the second time.

Academically, Lambert said, this had been a banner year for thegraduating class.

“Of our 41 graduates this year, 50 percent of them areMississippi Scholars,” she said. “That’s up from 10 last year.”

Lambert also spoke of the economics program the school isworking to implement. She said she was inspired to focus on itafter reading an article on debt in the next generation.

“It was called, ‘Who Will Own Our Children,'” she said.”Economics is a must, and we’re dealing a lot with personalfinance. Several of our seniors have already said it has beenhelpful as they’ve looked at financial aid for school.”

She also informed the board that Lampton Auditorium has waterproblems and there will be crews working on repairs in thebuilding.

In other business, the school board set June 19 as the date forthe public hearing on the School District’s 2007-2008 budget.