Academic Excellence is important at Brown Elementary School. In mid-January, students, teachers, staff members, families, friends and community members gathered to celebrate 104 students honored for achieving academic excellence. Students and their parents were honored for having perfect attendance and individual students were honored for showing the greatest improvement on the eVaulate assessment (which is a predictor for the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP)), scoring a 100 percent on an eValuate assessment in reading and/or math, being on the honor roll and for having straight A’s.

Students sat in the front of the gymnasium, wearing different color sashes, representing each academic honor. When it was their turn to receive their honor, students followed a procession to the back of the gymnasium and walked on a red carpet to receive an award and a lapel pin. The school’s uniform policy was waived for these students so they could dress up for the occasion. 

It was truly an amazing sight to see the “parade of colors” for students who received more than one honor. At the end of the assembly, Matt Phillips, principal at Brown Elementary, challenged every student in the audience to work hard so that at the spring assembly, all students would be honored. He also told them that the Brown Elementary staff members were behind them 150 percent and that they would do whatever they needed to help students reach that goal.