COURTLAND
During its meeting on Monday, the following Southampton County Public School board members were honored for their participation in the Virginia School Board Association Academy Program. Receiving gold pins were Lynn Bradley and Christopher Smith, gold pins. Denise Dunn, Chairwoman Dr. Deborah Goodwyn, Florence Reynolds, Dr. Carolyn Modlin, Donna Rountree and William Worsham received silver pins. Supt. Dr. Gwendolyn Shannon received a bronze pin.

Riverdale Elementary School was again lauded for earning the Virginia Board of Education’s Distinguished Achievement Award. The staff and faculty worked to elevate the school above the “Accreditation with Warning” status where math and reading were concerned. That led to full accreditation the following year and again in 2017, thus meriting the aforementioned honor.

The superintendent also noted that the Southampton public school division had also earned the Governor’s Award for Excellence and Innovation in Education. The honor was presented on Oct. 26 by Gov. Terry McAuliffe to Shannon for having “implemented a number of innovative initiatives, including Code to the Future programming for students in kindergarten through fifth grade.

But Shannon stressed, “We could not have done this without the dedication of our staff.”

In other business:

• Goodwyn later reminded the board that a planning session is required before year’s end. The superintendent will present her annual goals on Monday, Dec. 4, at 5:30 p.m. in the Wigwam of the Career Technical Center.

• The board gave its OK for the Southampton High Marching Band to participate in the Battle of the Bands, which it has done for the past few years. Approval was also granted for Blackwater volleyball to use the school facilities for practice and games.

• Dates to remember:

The Fall Family Fun Fair is today, Nov. 15.

CoGat Testing for the second and sixth graders will be on Monday, Nov. 27

Term II Writing Retakes will be on Tuesday, Nov. 28 and Wednesday, Nov. 29.

The ASVAB will be done on Friday, Dec. 1, and the SATs will be done on Saturday, Dec. 2

•Student enrollment stands at 2,783 total. Nottoway Elementary won the student attendance award with 97.29 percent; the highest teacher attendance for October went to Southampton Middle School with 94.5 percent.