Canton schools celebrate historic rise in academic rating

CANTON, Miss. (WLBT) - Students and school leaders in Canton were indulging in the many festivities in celebration of the district’s success and historic ranking Friday.

“Hey! Hey! Hey! We are coming up, the McNeal Way,” the children said in celebration.

The Canton Public School District has been named a “B” rated district overall, according to the Mississippi Department of Education.

Students like Tristian Brown, who is Mr. McNeal Elementary, says he is proud of their hard work and accomplishments.

“We have done our work. We have been good, kind, and nice and our grades have been accelerating through the roof. See, it’s really great to do your homework and study because that will help boost your grade up,” he said.

“We started putting an emphasis on students having a growth mindset and understanding that long as they persevere, and keep trying, they can not fail,” said Shalondia Washington, the Canton Elementary School Principal.

Nichols Middle School also celebrated being a “B” rated School for the first time ever.

Schools held a fun day to celebrate where students enjoyed inflatables, bubble machines, and food from food truck vendors.

“No longer are we an F School, but we are a believable “B” rated school,” Nichols Middle School principal Chucunna Anderson said.

Students and faculty all strutted to the football field to enjoy performances from the marching band and a car show by Diva Den.

“We’ve studied really hard! We go home and read the books that the teachers tell us to. We do our homework, turn it in on time and make sure everything is correct and right,” said Erin Lamb, a Nichols Middle School 8th grade cheerleader

“We had a lot of Negativity surrounding us because we had been a failing school for quite a while. We were just determined to change that narrative and change their thought process. We wanted to show that academically on the State test and that’s what our students did and so I’m overly joyed, super excited and I’m picot proud today,” Anderson stated.

School leaders say there will be more celebrations in the incoming weeks.

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