Malia Riggs
Elmore Autauga News
The Autauga County Board of Education held their regularly scheduled board meeting Monday evening where students across the district were honored for their accolades and achievements from music to robotics to leadership within Autauga County and on the state level.
“I’m excited to be able to recognize several of our students, principals and teachers tonight for the wonderful things that are occurring throughout our district,” Superintendent of Autauga County Schools Lyman Woodfin said.
A team of three engineering students from the Career Tech Center, Jonathan Greer, Mark Sergey, and Walton Bear are the first ever to receive an invitation to the VEX Robotics World Championship tournament, where they will compete with teams from all over the world.
Part of the competition is an interview process, where the team had virtual interviews last week with judges. Robotics teacher at the Career Tech Center, John Cooper, confirmed that three of the six judges were from foreign countries.
“This is the first team in our school’s history and Autauga County history to qualify for Worlds. There will be teams there from literally all over the world. They’ve represented our school well and this is a huge honor. We’ve had some really hard working and bright students, but this is a first,” Cooper said.
The Board recognized musicians that participated in All State Band and All State Choir as well as District Honor Band musicians from Prattville High School, Marbury High School, Prattville Junior High School and Marbury Middle School.
March is Music in our Schools month, which is fitting to honor these musicians at this month’s ACBOE meeting. These musicians across the county have received superior and excellent ratings within their various assessments, competitions and ensembles.
“We are so thankful for the opportunity to be able to honor some of our musicians. We are so blessed to be in a school system that has flourishing music programs. We have musicians representing multiple disciplines within music from choir, band, jazz band and orchestra,” Marbury High School band and choir director Brett Johnson said.
Prattville Primary School was awarded Lighthouse status by the Leader and Me Program, which is one of only 22 schools in the state to receive this honor, Woodfin Confirmed.
“As we progress in growing our leadership, academics and culture, we knew that the next level would be to go to Lighthouse status. We found out that we are the model school, and that’s what this recognition is,” Principal of Prattville Primary School Joseph Cochran said.
Student ambassadors from Prattville Primary, Owen Thornell, Annie Criswell, Kelly Turner, Ben Torrico spoke to the Board and members in attendance about their leadership as ambassadors and bringing about academic success within Prattville Primary School.
According to the Leader in Me website, Lighthouse Schools serve as exemplars to their community and other schools. Lighthouse schools use the rubric to measure outcomes in teaching leadership principles, creating leadership culture and aligning academic systems.
Among the accolades for music and leadership the Autauga County Technology Center Robotics team was also recognized
The Board also honored Amelia Cantwell who is a National Merit Scholar finalist. Cantwell represents less than one percent of U.S. high school seniors that are selected as a finalist.
A senior at Prattville High School, Cantwell has a GPA of 4.36 and an ACT score of 36, which is a perfect score. Cantwell is the Beta Club president, the speech and debate chair, she’s the captain of the cross country team as well as one of the top runners in the region. She is a part of the National Honor Society, science Olympiad and an AP Scholar.
“She’s in an elite group of around 15,000 in the nation. We are so proud of Amelia and how she has served as a student leader for others to look up to,” Principal of Prattville High School Doctor Daniel Farris said.
The National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced at the beginning of April all the way through July. If selected, Cantwell will be the first Merit Scholar at Prattville High School.
Below are the names of students who participated in All State Choir, All State Band and District Honor Band:
Marbury Middle School
Jerry Goodman – District Honor Band and All State Alternate
Preston Thornton – District Honor Band and All State
Shay Sheridan – District Honor Band
Emily Lollar – District Honor Band
Caleb Ingram – District Honor Band and All State
Lachlan Johnson – District Honor Band and All State
Caleb Martin – District Honor Band
Marbury High School
Carter Ingram-All District Band, All State Band, All State Choir
Ava Larkin- All District Band, All State Band
Cody Riddle-All State Choir
Dawson Barnett-All District Band, All State Band, All Region Orchestra
Reese McNeal-All District Band, All State Band, All State Choir
Mark Terry- All State Choir
Tyler Barrington- All State Choir
Sydney Cook-All District Band
Malik Johnson-All District Band
Keywan Clark-All District Band
Jamie Boyer-All District Band, Alternate All State Band
Prattville Junior High School
Madelyn Owens – District Honor Band
Hannah Braden – District Honor Band
Kaden Campbell – District Honor Band
Lainey Warren District Honor Band, All State Band
Quintan Huffman District Honor Band, All State Band
Libby Edfeldt District Honor Band, All State Alternate
Prattville High School
Miguel Rodriguez – District Honor Band, All State Band
Emma Ko – District Honor Band, All State Band
Jinny Ko – District Honor Band, All State Band
Georgia Tucker – District Honor Band, All State Band
Taehyun Kim – District Honor Band, All State Band
Nicholas Sanchez – District Honor Band, All State Band
Alexis Johnson – District Honor Band
Jackson Wade – District Honor Band, All State Band
Brock Ward – District Honor Band
Matthew Wright – District Honor Band, All State Band
Brett Helms – District Honor Band
David Thompson – District Honor Band
John-Bradley Bulger – District Honor Band, All State Band
Jacob Andreadakis – District Honor Band, All State Band
Adam French – District Honor Band, All State Band Alternate
Seth Compton – All-State Jazz, District Honor Band, All State Band
Emma Cox – District Honor Band, All State Band Alternate
Trinity Smith – District Honor Band
Morgan Cruse – District Honor Band
Thomas Stewart – District Honor Band
Victoria Simpson – District Honor Band
Joey McMinn – All-State Orchestra, District Honor Band, All State Band
Dominic Frontiero – All-State Orchestra, District Honor Band
Taino Tillman – District Honor Band
Mia Hernandez – District Honor Band
