NATCHEZ — It wasn’t your ordinary school board meeting.

The lights were off in the Braden School boardroom. Papers were left scattered on the board table, as if signifying something had pulled the movers and the shakers away.

And down the hall, in the building’s largest room, the microphone boomed and the seats were full.

The Natchez-Adams School Board strayed from the ordinary Thursday to publicly recognize close to 100 of their finest.

Superintendent Anthony Morris handed out certificates to members of the Natchez High choir, the state champion NHS powerlifting team, the district champion tennis team, 21 Mississippi Scholars, seven Parents of the Year and a few others.

And when the crowds left and the meeting returned to the same-old-same-old board members said the hour-long ceremony was time well spent.

“We had a different kind of board meeting,” Chairman Norris Edney said. “But I don’t regret the time and at all. The students were just marvelous.”