The Lincoln County School District was among 51 districts honored by the Mississippi School Boards Association this week, according to an MSBA press release issued Wednesday night.

PHOTO SUBMITTED / Lincoln County Board of Trustees President Ricky Welch holds the district’s Lantern Award presented at a ceremony Tuesday in Jackson.

The Lincoln district was one of 31 districts earning a Lantern Award for achieving a “B” letter grade in this year’s Mississippi Department of Education accountability rankings while also having no schools with lower than a letter grade of “C.”

While the Lincoln County school district had an overall grade of “B,” or “High Performing,” in the rankings announced earlier this year, its schools individually earned the following grades: West Lincoln Attendance Center, “A” (Star school), and Bogue Chitto, Enterprise and Loyd Star attendance centers, “B.”

Approximately 400 school board members and superintendents across the state attended the MSBA Lighthouse School Leaders Awards Luncheon in Jackson Tuesday, with this year’s recognitions setting a record number of awards in three categories for outstanding student achievement, based on student performance on last spring’s testing in the MDE accountability program.

In addition to the district presentation, individual board members and superintendents of the districts received a special MSBA Lighthouse School Leader lapel pin.

“The mark of student success continues to rise, and Mississippi school districts have a proven track record of providing leadership to achieve, and even exceed, the standards,” said MSBA Executive Director Michael W. Waldrop.

“The MSBA Lighthouse School Leader Awards Program is our way of cheering school leaders on as they persist on the path of increasingly higher student achievement for all students.”

The MSBA Lighthouse School Leader Awards Program was established by the MSBA at the beginning of the 2003-04 school year, in recognition of the unsung efforts of school districts to meet more rigorous state and federal accountability standards.

In addition to the Lantern Award, awards were presented in the following other two categories:

Beacon: Letter Grade of “A” under the Mississippi Department of Education’s Accountability Standards. Number of honorees – 19.

Torch: Letter Grade of “C” under the Mississippi Department of Education’s Accountability Standards, plus 90 percent or more district students participate in the federal free/reduced lunch program, no school graded below “C” and at least one school is graded “B” or above.