JulieFinley

The Natchez Democrat.

Principal Larry Hooper thinks high expectations and close relationships with the students are the first steps to school success.

Hooper’s school, A.W. Watson Elementary in Port Gibson, received the state’s highest ranking, Level 5, based on last year’s test scores. A.W. Watson’s student body, 897 students, is 99 percent black and 100 percent of the students eat free lunch.

Success has been a pattern for the Claiborne County school in recent years. The school, a Level 5 in all but one of Hooper’s four years, dropped to a Level 4 in 2003. Hooper is in his first year as principal, but served as assistant principal for the last three years.

Success is something Hooper intends to maintain.

He said the school has very little parental involvement, and he relies heavily on the school’s teachers and administrators to ensure success.

&uot;We have high expectations of teachers,&uot; Hooper said. &uot;The majority of them reach my expectations.&uot;

Hooper spends nearly every morning in the classrooms doing written evaluations of his teachers.

&uot;They know I’m in there to watch them,&uot; Hooper said. &uot;That’s one thing I’ve learned, the school is not going to be successful if you have a principal who sits in his office.&uot;

In the classroom teachers work through the Mississippi Curriculum Test workbook to prepare their students for the kinds of questions they’ll be answering on the spring tests.

&uot;We work hard, over and over again,&uot; fourth-grade teacher Shirley Barnes said. &uot;We tell students to do their best and we offer incentives.&uot;

Barnes, who has been at the school for 25 years, said the MCT coach book was a great teaching tool, but said she also assigns a lot of homework.

The upper-grade teachers team-teach their subjects in order to match up teachers with their specialties.

Hooper said the majority of his teachers have many years of experience and are from the Port Gibson area.

Hooper also said he teaches good classroom manners and has a strict discipline policy. The school uses corporal punishment, but Hooper said he rarely spanks children.

In the hallways the lines are straight, the shirts are tucked in and mouths are quiet.

&uot;We don’t have discipline problems,&uot; Hooper said. &uot;We’ve had no children suspended this year. It starts in the classroom. The kids don’t want to let me down because they know I care about them.&uot;

His relationship with each student is something Hooper said is important to him and is important to the school.

&uot;The kids love me,&uot; Hooper said. &uot;They come up and shake hands and hug. At the end of the day that makes my day. I treat the kids like they are my own.

&uot;Student morale is high, teacher morale is high. The students are happy; they can’t wait to get to school.&uot;

Hooper, a Natchez resident and graduate of Natchez High, said his home district was important to him.

&uot;I’m a product of the Natchez public school system,&uot; he said. &uot;I’m proud of the Natchez public school system and I wish more people took pride in the Natchez-Adams School District.&uot;