NATCHEZ &045; The school district has recognized it, businesses have recognized it, the schools have recognized it and now the governor has, too &045; the community and the schools are working together in Natchez and Adams County.

Monday, the Natchez-Adams School District was awarded a Governor’s Award for their &uot;outstanding&uot; school and community partnerships on the district and community wide level.

&uot;This award belongs to every school and every partner because each of them has done an outstanding job,&uot; said Millicent Mayo, coordinator of Partners in Education for the district.

&uot;They have made us the top program in the state.&uot;

Under her helm, the district moved from 13 partners in 1999 to the 130 they currently have, a big difference in just four years. The value of all the services provided (broken down by hours and gauged monetarily by the hour), monetary donations and donated items to the district, when tallied into monetary value, was more than $130,000. Now, the Mississippi Association of Partners in Education has awarded the district this top honor for their districts efforts.

Superintendent Anthony Morris snuck out of one meeting Monday to attend the awards ceremony in Jackson and was glad he did. The district was nominated as a whole but two schools, Morgantown and Natchez High, were nominated separately as well, but only ended up as finalists.

The awards means a lot, Morris said, &uot;because that shows the concentration is district wide.&uot;

&uot;It is important for us to have that partnership to work together to improve the quality of life in the county.&uot;

Morgantown Elementary Principal Fred Marsalis, whose school was up for a governor’s award, said the Partners in Education program is important and winning the overall awards shows &uot;how the community and school can work together.&uot;

The four areas the schools and community and businesses work toward are student motivation, teacher appreciation, business appreciation and service projects.

Just Wednesday, a new partner to the district, the Natchez Rotary Club, gave all third graders in the district their very own dictionary to use at school and take home.

Rotarians Chuck Caldwell, Nancy Hungerford, Sim Mosby and Morris passed out the dictionaries to the children and incorporated a lesson about truth and fairness as well.

&uot;The Partners in Education program in important for these young people to see professional people come in these schools,&uot; Morris said.

And the students were grateful for the visit and the dictionaries, as were the teachers.

&uot;This is wonderful because the children’s dictionaries we have are falling apart,&uot; third grade Morgantown teacher Ethel Scott told the Rotarians.

Cindy Etheridge said the students were just starting to learn about using the dictionary, learning about the guidewords at the top of the pages. Students having their own dictionaries, she said, would help a lot.

&uot;Before we would have to check them out at the library,&uot; Etheridge said.

But other partners are helping in other ways.

Entergy, for example, gave Fallin Career and Technology Center a $1,500 grant the school can use to reward their students.

&uot;We use that money also to support our peer tutoring efforts,&uot; said Linda Grafton, principal of Fallin.

Cable One bought T-shirts for the McLaurin choir to wear when it performs.

And Check Masters, a partner with Frazier Primary, provides a birthday cake monthly to celebrate all of the teachers’ birthdays.

The partners also get something out of the experience, whether it be the thank yous or the smile they leave with on their face after helping out.

&uot;Education is important in making our community what we want it to be,&uot; Caldwell said of their efforts Wednesday.

It is all about working together.