By james art MADISON COUNTY, Ky. (LEX 18) — A lot of work by two teachers at Madison Central High School has turned into solid strides for students at the school. They’ve taken an unconventional approach to pep rallies, and it’s paying off in the classroom
The Tribe’s rallies at Madison Central are packed with energy.
“We try to recognize in front of the whole school,” Principal Brandon Fritz said.
Fritz supported through initiatives such as the Tribe Awards from teachers Sarah Martin and Lindsay McKay.
Last May, we brought you the story of Roger Brown, a Grade 10 student with Down syndrome who competed in the musical chairs final, a culture-building activity.
These rallies distinguish many teams and clubs that have achieved success.
“This shouldn’t just be a sports team in the traditional sense of the word, and so we’ve worked hard to figure out how we can get everyone involved,” McKay said.
The first Tribal Rally here at Madison Central was held last spring, and it was a great way, according to McKay and Martin, to focus on the entire student body.
“We asked Mr. Fritz and he’s great, he’s a super supportive administrator and he said okay let’s do a Tribe Rally, let’s do something fun for the kids and we did one and the kids loved it,” Martin said.
But that’s only part of the story. Last fall, Martin and McKay started an Instagram page, regularly posting there and on Facebook to spread the word about the rallies.
Juniors Stella Hatfield and Reagan Morgan are also two of the 23 students helping run the socials.
“I love it, that’s probably what I’m most looking forward to all day. I feel like it has a really big impact and the kids get excited when we come into their classroom and say hey, who wants to be on social media, it’s not just the same people over and over again,” Hatfield said.
“We have the best teachers that do it, so we love them and I think our community in our social media class, we’ve all become like a family as well, Morgan added.
Martin and McKay believe that the positive culture has led to significant improvement in the classroom. Madison Central, which moved up two spots last year from yellow to blue in the color-coded rating via Kentucky’s composite score, improved from a score of 66.3 to 81.
The school’s principal believes the relationships led to those test scores.
“Our teachers work really, really hard. Last year we stepped up…we’ll do it again this year. We challenged the children. I told our students when they came back from fall break, it’s great to get to the top, it’s harder to stay on top, so we have to take on the next challenge and try to get there again next year,” noted Fritz .
It is a daily job emphasizing students who embody teamwork, respect, integrity, belonging and excellence.
Through KSA Testing, Madison Central’s reading and math scores jumped from 54.2 to 85.4 this past year.