VIENNA — Vienna Elementary Principal Shanda Snodgrass recognized several people in her report to the Maries R-1 School Board at the board’s May 23 meeting.

Snodgrass thanked Food Service Director Amy Rowden for applying for a grant that the district received to provide free lunches during summer school. School-age children in the area may stop at the school between 11 a.m. and 12:15 p.m. when summer school is in session to receive a meal. June 21 is the last day of summer school.

At the time of the meeting, 132 elementary students and 32 middle school students had enrolled in summer school.

“They’re very engaged,” Snodgrass said. “Lots of fun things are happening.”

Snodgrass recognized the students chosen to participate in the final Character Trait Walk of Fame of the 2022-2023 school year: Jolene Geissel, Hank Helton, Madelyn Hutchison, Liam Cohlmia, Raylan Dement, Noralynne James, Max Kilmer, Micah Massman, Trenton Schaben, Addington Blakely, Elayna Bresnahan, Maci Campbell, Matthew Campbell, Emarie Fawcett, Kaleigh Miller, Dalton Ohlendorf, Heidi Otto, Leah Sandbothe, Trevor Bax, Isabella King, Mariah Crandell, Kaylee Fawcett-Powers, Austin Bax, Johnnathan Raines, Emma Sandbothe, Weston Schwartze and Alex Wieberg.

“We had more than we’ve ever had,” Snodgrass said. “It amazes me. The kids say ‘If we have more than 20 it’s bigger than we’ve had. For all those kids to know how many we’ve had previously, it was pretty cool.”

Snodgrass also recognized students that earned the Principal Awards, which she began last year to acknowledge students who scored highly on their benchmark assessments. The recipients of the Principal Awards for the Math Inventory assessments were: kindergartners Ayla Byrd, Callie Hays, Glenn Deardeuff, Preston Helton, Carly Juergens and Colt Via; first-graders Liam Cohlmia, Greyson Gregory, Noralynne James and Raelynn James and second-grader Matthew Campbell. Kindergartner Holden Schwartze, first-graders Aubree Campbell, Noralynne James, Raelynne James and Emerson Allsup and third-grader Tanner James all received Principal Awards for the Math Evaluate assessments. First-grader Raelynne James received the Principal Award for the English Language Arts Evaluate assessments.

“That’s the most I’ve ever had at 100 percent,” Snodgrass said. “It was amazing.”

Students who achieved between 95 percent and 99 percent on at least one of the assessments received honorable mentions. Those students were kindergartners Preston Helton, Ayla Byrd, Boone Barnhart, Alyvia McKinnon, Tyler Ford-Moore and Holden Schwartze; first-graders Ella Wansing, Emerson Foster, Emerson Allsup, Emeri Hamm-Harvey, George Schulte, Reyna Neubert, Maebri Lanning, Gentry Reeves, Raylan Dement, Micah Massman and Trenton Schaben; second-graders Elayna Bresnahan, Addington Blakely, Kloee Palmer, Keetyn Weed, Heidi Otto and Tye Humphrey; third-grader Tanner James and fifth-graders Tanner Hallahan, Alex Wieberg and Molly Wann.

“All those kids deserve a big pat on the back because they really worked hard,” Snodgrass said. “They put effort into what they learned this year, and it showed in their benchmark tests. I was very proud of them.”

Snodgrass gathered the students in the cafeteria to present their awards.

“These little kids — we’ve never had an assembly,” she said. “And for them to get called down in a group, it was like they didn’t know what to do. We had to talk through the fact that ‘you’re going to come up and I’m going to give you an award.’ It hit me that we haven’t been able to do this for so long. I can’t wait for next year because we’re having an assembly.”

Board member Matt Novak asked if Snodgrass knew why more students had achieved higher benchmark scores than before.

“This is the first year we’ve really gotten to promote attendance,” Snodgrass said. “The more they’re here, the more they hear.”

Over the last few years, the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in more caution around students staying home due to illness or exposure to the virus.

“I think we have a little more normalcy this year than probably the last few years,” said Superintendent Teresa Messersmith.

Snodgrass also thanked the board and Fick Distributing on behalf of the staff for providing breakfast during Teacher Appreciation Week.