BY ANITA STIEFEL
ANITAS@
OPELIKAOBSERVER.COM
LEE COUNTY —
At its regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 10, the Lee County Board of Education recognized several schools and individuals named winners of the Attendance Awareness Poster/Video Contest.
“Attendance Awareness Month is celebrated each September to highlight the importance of regular attendance for learning and achievement,” said Superintendent Mac McCoy. “During this special event in our state and nation, real emphasis is placed on building greater student engagement, public awareness and family support for school attendance efforts not only during September, but for the rest of the year.”
The theme of this year’s contest was “Showing Up Together — Every School Day Matters,” and all K-12 students were encouraged to participate.
The district poster contest winner was the First Grade Department at Wacoochee Elementary. Fifth-grader Mackenzie Hardcastle of West Smiths, third-grader Karder Penson of Loachapoka Elementary and fifth-grader Abbygail Bolich of Sanford Middle School were individual finalists.
The district video contest winners included Beauregard Elementary and Smiths Station Freshman Center. Loachapoka High School was named a finalist in the video contest.
Also at the meeting, the board watched a presentation by Tanya Martinez and Gracy Lashley, representing the Beauregard High School Future Farmers of America (FFA), which has been named as a National Premier Chapter. Beauregard is among three schools selected as finalists in the Strengthening Agriculture competition, to be held Nov. 1-4 at the 96th annual National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis.