While preparing for the week ahead, let’s stop to review the good news that made headlines last week:

Adams County Sheriff Ronny Brown told Adams County supervisors in their Monday meeting he is applying for $14,000 to boost security at judicial and law enforcement buildings in Natchez.

Although such a grant would presumably come from federal tax dollars, landing it would mean the burden doesn’t have to be borne only by the local tax base. Better yet, no local match would be required for the department Homeland Security grant.

The Natchez-Adams School Board announced Thursday teachers will receive between a 6 and 7 percent raise and teacher assistants will receive an $800 increase in the upcoming school year. That’s good news in a state whose teachers are among the lowest-paid in the nation.

Karen Tutor, principal at McLaurin Elementary, was one of only four finalists for the statewide Administrator of the Year honor.

That’s an honor for Tutor and good publicity for the area and its schools. But even better news is the way McLaurin teachers described her management style &045; friendly, calming, a breath of fresh air, the leader of a team.

While it’s just one factor, the type of support you get from a supervisor and the type of work environment he or she fosters goes a long way to making the most demanding jobs more rewarding and fun.

The Ferriday Oil and Seed plant is tentatively set to open June 24, according to parish officials. Once open, could employ up to 18 people and would make products from soybeans, a product grown widely in the area.

Here’s hoping this week is full of good news.

The facility will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week to press 80 to 100 tons of soybeans a day. The results will be used for high-protein animal feed. The plant can also produce biodiesel fuel from the beans.

From the way the teachers describe it you’d think McLaurin Elementary is some kind of spa.

When they go to work in the mornings they are greeted with a friendly smile, a calming influence and a breath of fresh air, they said.

They work as a team and everyone knows the game plan.

But it hasn’t always been this way, teacher Martha Tuccio said, and the credit goes to Principal Karen Tutor.

“I’ve been at McLaurin a long time and we’ve had a lot of changes,” she said. “It seems like turnover every other year, but she is just so rock solid.”

It’s that impact on her teachers, her students and fellow administrators that landed Tutor a seat in the interview room for state administrator of the year two weeks ago.

Previously voted Natchez-Adams District administrator of the year by other building level administrators, Tutor was one of four state finalists for the overall title.