VIS celebrates its 'B-Day'

For the first time in its history, Vicksburg Intermediate School has earned a B on Mississippi's school accountability ratings, posting its highest score ever.

On Thursday, students, teachers and families gathered to celebrate the achievement.

“I'm so very proud. What I really want you to take from this is that it's bigger than a letter grade of a B. This is a true testament of what happens when people come together,” Principal Lakesha Batty said.

Vicksburg Intermediate's accountability score rose 55 points, from 358 last year to 413 this year, enough to move the school from a C to a B despite tougher grading standards adopted by the state.

“You paid the price. You put in the work,” Batty said. “Use your strategies: do your best, be kind, be a leader. And it has come to pass. I'm so very proud of you.”

When the teachers were called forward, Batty reminded students that their work does not end when the school day does — or even when school is out.

“Do you know that these people here, when you are off on break for two, three, sometimes five days or two weeks at a time? They're still here asking, ‘Can you open the building? I need to get in my classroom and get to work. I want to prepare and get ahead.’ They do that for you.”

She encouraged students to remember those sacrifices when they see their teachers outside the classroom and to offer them a kind word or a high-five.

“Thank you for doing the homework — that we call this new homework, this new math and this new science,” Batty said. “Thank you to all of our parents who stuck in there with us.”

The achievement came in a year when the Vicksburg Warren School District increased its overall accountability score but dropped from a B to a C because of the state's higher grading thresholds. Nine district schools improved their point totals, including Dana Road Elementary, which also earned a B.

Batty had one more message for the teachers, acknowledging the money they sometimes spend from their own pockets to help students.

“We can't thank you enough. We barely pay you enough, but from our hearts, we thank you, we love you,” she said. “It is the work that you do, it is the effort that you put in, it's the extra when you dig down in your pockets and hand it out to everybody else.”