Wednesday, 12 September 2007 23:36
ACUSD to Receive National Award for Program
Amador County Unified
School District will receive its fourth and
fifth “Promising Practices” awards in four years from the Character Education
Partnership (CEP). This is an organization devoted to character
education in schools world-wide. The
awards will be presented to the District at the organization’s annual
conference, November 1-3. Character
Education Partnership, CEP, is located in Washington,
D.C.. with the conference occurring
in Arlington,
Virginia. The District –as in the past –will not be attending the event and will
receive the award shortly after. The awards will be one of 116 being presented
at the conference.
Amador County is the only school
district in the country to receive as many as five honors since 2002. The two current recognitions are for the District’s “Tomorrow’s Leaders
Today” (TLT), a program that trains high school students in leadership and
counseling skills, and LEADS, which pairs successful juniors and seniors at
Amador High with incoming freshmen to help the newcomers get off to a strong
academic start. TLT has actually been in place for five years. First, high school students are selected,
based on their leadership potential, to go through training that develops their
social and leadership skills. In turn, they train junior high school
students in the same procedures and skills.
And now former high school TLT students, currently in college, are the
trainers for the high school and junior high groups. Last year was the first for LEADS; however,
the results were impressive. The
mentors and mentees were recognized at a spring school board meeting for their
accomplishments. This year the TLT trainings will begin for high school
students immediately after the October break.
A new addition to the program this year would bring trained junior high
school students on to elementary school sites to demonstrate and teach skills.