Last year 27 portable classrooms sat on the campus of Thompson Middle School.

Those portables were small, crowded and exposed students to the weather as the raced back and forth to the main building.

The Linda Nolen Learning Center moved to a more central location at the vacated Bradford Facility, so remodeling the old Nolen Center/THS seemed a good fix for a big problem.

Four months and nearly 500 students into the new school year the discipline rate is down and the success rate is up.

Principal Brent Tolbert has big plans and has a staff ready to make our city proud of this new school.

Once a month there is Celebration Friday.

If a student has met all homework and project requirements and had no discipline problems, they get a treat and 30 minutes outside.

The Science Club recently did a radon awareness study. Through a grant, the students placed special kits to detect radon in the school.

Another project of science teachers Kerley, Longshore and Moore involves obtaining a grant to acquire funding for an outdoor classroom since sixth-grade science focuses on Earth science. A Koi pond will be redone also.

Most impressive is the newly formed program, Fuel Up To Play 60, sponsored by the National Dairy Council and the National Football League.

In this program, students report their food intake online daily. This program is a health initiative project, as each student accumulates points for good choices. Prizes and personal rewards are the end result, with a better view of each student’s eating habits.

Coaches Jonathan Moore and Shawn Weltzin are very involved with this project.

We should be proud to have such dedicated people taking care of our children and grandchildren. Remember, it takes a village to raise a child and the new Sixth Grade School seems destined to be a village.

Sandra Thames can be reached by e–mail at bobthames1942@yahoo.com.