[8/3/04]Before beginning a new year with students, faculty and staff of the Vicksburg Warren School District were called together Monday for words of encouragement.

Keynote speaker Michael Marks called them heroes and Superintendent James Price, who received a standing ovation from teachers, challenged them to build on the momentum of the last school year.

Jan Daigre, school board president, also spoke, reminding the teachers packed into the Vicksburg High auditorium they are “the driving force behind this district.”

The teachers, aides and others will receive state-set 8 percent raises in their contracts, the last and largest of the increases scheduled by the Legislature starting five years ago. Those increases have pumped the 16-year-old district’s spending plan to $72 million, up $9 million from last school year.

Buses roll Thursday, delivering 9,000 students to the district’s two high schools, two junior highs, two K-6 schools, four K-4 schools, Bowmar Magnet School and the Center for Alternative Programs.

Marks, a drama and debate teacher at Hattiesburg High School who has won national and state teaching awards, spoke about the joys of teaching.

Marks told about a student at Lumberton High School. They were on a trip to Austin, Texas, when he noticed the student crying in the back of the bus as the bus passed the Louisiana/Mississippi border.

“I thought the student had lost a girlfriend or a family member,” Marks said. “He said to me, Mr. Marks, this is the furtherest I’ve been (from home) in my life.'”

Teachers should be proud of their profession, Marks said.

“You are the real heroes of America,” he said.

Price, who is starting his second year, has been an advocate for structural change and has taken an aggressive, but empathetic approach to discipline.

He touted the district’s cooperation with Youth Court and the teachers who work with at-risk students, saying teaching those students was a “moral” calling.

“We say to those students: We’re going to get you and we’re going to teach you,” he said.

Next school year, all elementaries will be K-6 and students will attend schools closest to their homes, where possible, under a return to community schools. Price has said he hopes that will result in stronger neighborhood identification with schools and parental support. Other initiatives considered during the past year have been a shift to a different schedule with one-month breaks between nine weeks of classes plus no school in July.

“We have the opportunity, the skill level, the community support,” Price said. “We have everything we need to get the job done. Let’s do it.”

Along with other Mississippi districts, this is the first full year of the state’s accountability initiative paired with provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Later this month, the state will make available detailed reports on how each school is performing.

At the convocation, the district also recognized parent of the year Barry Payne of Beechwood Elementary and teacher of the year Arlene Smith and administrator of the year Mack Douglas, both of Warren Central High School, and Joan Priddy, a new National Board Certified Teacher.