Georgia School Superintendent Dr. John Barge visited Potter Street Elementary last Thursday to recognize the school as a 2011 Georgia School of Excellence in Student Achievement.
The award, announced last December, honored 26 schools around the state that have shown the greatest improvement or highest achievement on standardized testing and other benchmarks.
Barge said he had come from a humble background to where he is today by “taking what teachers had given me to be successful.”
“I went to college on a full academic scholarship and you can too, you just have to study hard,” Barge told Potter Street’s students, who were gathered in the gym.
Barge congratulated the students’ achievements to help Potter Street earn the award.
“You are all academic superstars,” he said.
Gina Niederhauser of the Georgia Natural Gas Company presented a check for $1,000 to the school’s principal, Dr. Lillie Brown.
Accepting the “School of Excellence” trophy from Barge, Brown thanked her students for all their hard work and thanked her teachers for “making this dream come true.”
Vicky Callahan of United Health Care, which underwrites the school system’s health care plan, presented a special gift — she promised that the school’s faculty and staff could designate a day as “Stress Free Day” on which massage therapists would visit the school and give massages to employees.