BY JOHN CONLEY

Associate Editor

Mullens Middle School has won a prestigious award.

MMS was one of 65 public school recipients of the West Virginia State Board of Education's Exemplary School Award at at dinner held last week in Charleston.

"We were the only middle school in southern West Virginia to get the award," said MMS Principal Sid Bradford. Only seven other middle schools statewide were among the winners.

“Any time one of our schools reaches the exemplary status, we’re very proud and elated,” said Superintendent of Schools Frank “Bucky” Blackwell.

“This is one award you can win without applying for it,” he added. “Right now, they are in the top 10 percent of all middle schools. It shows the kids and staff are working hard. It’s an honor.”

The award is based weighted academic achievement (which must be in the top 10 percent of the state's middle schools) and attendance (which must be at or above 94 percent).

"I'm thrilled with winning this," Bradford commented. "Our staff and kids work hard, and we've always been known as a hard (academic) school.

"We have high expectations of our kids," he added.

Getting strong test scores is a product of tutoring and targeting students' weaknesses. "Everybody is focused on achieving our goals," Bradford said. "This is the third year in a row that we've had really good test scores, and we just decided before the year started that we were going to go for (qualifying for the award)."

MMS has an enrollment of 191 in grades 5-8.