District #153 Students Recognized for Effort, Improvement

Four students from Homewood School District #153 have been awarded the “Tom Dockweiler Awards” recognizing students who showed the most improvement during the 2007-08 school year. The school board presented students Mary Moran, Jason Roby, Destiney Gammon, and Gerald Butler with the awards at its August 25th meeting.

Willow School honored Mary Moran, a 2nd-grader last year.

Willow School Principal Mary Ann Savage said the school selected Mary as his year’s Dockweiler recipient because of the remarkable improvement she showed and not just in ways that teachers usually measure.

“It has been such a joy to watch Mary blossom. Her love of learning will stay with her forever,” said Savage.

Jason Roby a 4th-grader at Churchill School last year, received Churchill’s honor.

Churchill Principal Cece Coffey said the award was really recognition of the incredible effort and improvement Jason demonstrated during his two years at the school.

“There is a thing called stick-to-it-ness, and Jason has loads of it,” Coffey said.

Millennium School award recipient, 6th-grader Destiney Gammon, was also praised for her perseverance.

“We are so proud of Destiney’s hard work and improvement last year. We are equally proud of the character she always displays,” said Millennium Principal Shirley Watkins.

Teacher Jackie DeMarco called Destiney a “little ray of sunshine.”

James Hart School selected Gerald Butler, an 8th-grader in 2007-08, as its most improved student.

“All of us at James Hart are so proud of the maturity he gained last year and his ability to make good decisions,” said James Hart Principal Michael Klein. “You won’t find a harder worker or a more polite young man.”

The school board created the Dockweiler Award to reward student achievement in academic improvement and effort. The awards are named in honor of Thomas Dockweiler, a former school board member who stepped down from the board in 2007 after nearly 20 years of service. The yearly award is presented to one student in each of the district’s four schools. This is the second year the Dockweiler Awards have been presented.

“Sometimes it’s just as special and important to keeping getting better and better as it is to get straight A’s,” said Dockweiler who attended the meeting to personally hand out the awards named in his honor.