Anderson County Schools receive appreciation award
Anderson County Superintendent Dr. Tim Parrott and System Appreciation Coordinator Pam Crawford receive an award for the best appreciation program in East Ten- nessee from Utrust Administrator, Dr. Dan Tollett.
Anderson County Superintendent Dr. Tim Parrott and Pam Crawford accepted the award presented by Utrust at a dinner at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville.
All schools in Anderson County participate in the program that encourages students to recognize and express appreciation to school employees who do things to make students’ lives better every day.
The award included $1,800 or $100 for each of the eighteen participating schools in Anderson County. Pam Crawford is the System Coordinator for the appreciation program in Anderson County.
Each school has a student A-Team (A for Appreciation) that plans and leads activities to honor each school employee on one of eight theme-based appreciation days during the school year. To honor employees, students write notes of appreciation, make announcements and sing songs with rewritten, honoring lyrics. They also make signs, banners, cards and other decorations to honor employees. They frequently provide tokens of appreciation but the emphasis is on sincere expressions of appreciation.
Most schools have a G-Force (G for Gratitude), consisting of one or two students in each classroom who seek to change the culture of the school by encouraging fellow students to express appreciation to employees throughout the year, not just on appreciation days.
Superintendent Parrott said, “We value every employee of Anderson County Schools and we want our students to realize that each employee has an important responsibility in making our schools run efficiently.
He continued, “We think it’s important for our students to develop the habit of expressing appreciation and we want our employees to feel appreciated. Most of our employees are worth more than they are paid so we are trying to make certain that they know that they’re the most appreciated employees in Anderson County.”
“We are very proud of the excellent appreciation program in Anderson County Schools,” said Utrust Administrator Dr. Dan Tollett. “Every appreciation day in Anderson County Schools is fun for both employees and students.”
He continued, ‘Appreciation is a basic skill, every bit as important to the success of students as any subject taught in school.”
Utrust is a statewide organization that sponsors the Utrust School Appreciation Program and promotes excellence in employee relations. Utrust also administers unemployment compensation for local school boards in Tennessee. Utrust distributed $3 million in mini-grants to its members in the last three years.
The mini-grants are designed to pay for things that teachers and principals need but were not funded in their budget.