Thomas Johnson Middle School honored with character award

‘‘I am extremely proud of our students,” said Principal Ronald Curtis. ‘‘I think it’s a heck of an accomplishment for my staff and students to be recognized and honored in this manner. The kids will be able to see the fruits of their labor and that their actions and behaviors have not gone unnoticed.”

Last school year was the first time the school had participated in the program.

Character Counts is a national nonprofit program that provides schools with training programs, special projects, materials and consulting. Schools have the option to choose which parts of the program they want to adopt.

Thomas Johnson’s program last year consisted of grade-level assemblies recognizing students who exhibited good character, teachers each day taking time to teach the importance of having good character and positive values being read over the public address system every morning.

Curtis said that with the success of the program last year, there are plans to continue it again this year.

‘‘Because the [program] is so new [to our school], we’re developing it as we go along,” Curtis said.

Words of character will continue to be read over the public address system each day and there are plans for some of the school’s teachers to attend nationally recognized character-building conferences and workshops, Curtis said.

A representative from the school will be attending the 14th National Forum on Character Education on Nov. 1 at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City Hotel in Arlington. The District-based nonprofit The Character Education Partnership sponsors the three-day long conference.

There will be a kickoff assembly for this year’s Character Counts program on Sept. 29, a day after the school is presented with its award.

The week leading up to the assembly will require ‘‘a lot of preparation,” according to Wendell Matthews, who was hired last year to be the school’s character education coordinator.

Matthews said that he is currently in the process of developing a ‘‘character education corridor” in the main office that will feature motivational words of encouragement and character-building mantras.

‘‘We want to launch it even bigger this year,” said Matthews of the program.

Two representatives from the school will attend the awards luncheon.