THE SELMA TIMES-JOURNAL

For Concetta Burton the news of Edgewood Elementary School making Adequate Yearly Progress was the realization &8220;a lot of hard work.&8221;

When Burton took over at Edgewood in 2001 the school was in academic hot water. They had testing challenges and were &8220;in school improvement.&8221; They have now come full-circle. On Thursday night Burton was recognized by the board of education, along with nine other Selma City School principals for not only making AYP, but also a total of $155,000 in incentive grants that came along with it.

Edgewood walked away with $50,000 in reward grants. The school with the most cash, Burton’s school received $25,000 for Advancing the Challenge, $20,000 for Exceeding the Challenge, and $5,000 for Meeting the Challenge.

These days Burton said she &8220;can sleep a whole lot better.&8221;

Meadowview Elementary’s Janis Stewart picked up a total of $40,000 for Exceeding the Challenge at her school, and Knox Elementary’s Joslyn Reddick totaled $30,000 in challenge grants.

Beth Taylor of Byrd Elementary, Logan Cowart of Cedar Park Elementary, Wanda McCall of Clark Elementary, Arthur Capers of Payne Elementary, Gerald Shirley of the School of Discovery, and Robert Carter of S.P. Kingston, all received $5,000 each for Meeting the Challenge. Bertram Pinkney of CHAT Academy was also recognized. CHAT made AYP after the appeal process corrected mix-up in paperwork. A cash award may be coming as well, school officials said.

State Superintendent of Education Joe Morton said the monetary reward is additional compensation for a job well done to schools that have some of the most difficult academic challenges ahead of them. For some schools, the goal is more difficult to achieve, depending on the demographics of the student population, Morton said in a news release.

The reward money will go directly to the school and should be invested in instructional improvement programs and/or materials voted on by the teaching faculty. Across Alabama there are 36 Advancing the Challenge schools, 219 Meeting the Challenge schools, 105 Exceeding the Challenge subgroups, and 41 Addressing the Challenge subgroups, according to the department of education.