School Media Centers Win Top State Awards

CANTON, GA -- Two schools in the Cherokee County School District have received stop statewide honors for their respective media program awards.

Hickory Flat's Indian Knoll Elementary School has won the 2017 Exemplary Media Program Award for elementary schools, while E.T. Booth Middle School in Woodstock nabbed the 2017 Exceptional Media Program Award for middle schools presented by the Georgia Library Media Association and Georgia Library Association.

The programs, which are led by Indian Knoll Elementary School Media Specialist Jennifer Lewis and E.T. Booth Middle School Media Specialist Amanda Graves, will be honored June 12 during the opening ceremony of the Georgia Library Media Association’s Summer Institute in Peachtree City.

Three Exemplary and three Exceptional Georgia Library Media Programs (one from the elementary, middle and high school levels) are honored each year.

The Judy Serritella Exemplary/Exceptional Library Media Program Award was created by the associations “to recognize those library media programs that empower students to be critical thinkers, enthusiastic readers, skillful researchers, and ethical users of information both in vision and in practice.

Exceptional library media programs are ones that demonstrate these characteristics in a consistent and effective manner.” Exemplary programs, according to the associations, “go one step beyond and are a model for innovation, student empowerment, and leadership in the school library community.”

Both schools and media specialists will be recognized by the Cherokee County School Board and Superintendent of Schools Dr. Brian Hightower at the board's June 15 meeting.

Photo: Amanda Graves and Jennifer Lewis. Credit: Cherokee County School District