At a recent State Board of Education meeting, Georgia Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox named a total of 896 schools as 2009 Title I Distinguished Schools, according to a news release. Seven of those are schools in the Griffin-Spalding County School System.

To receive this recognition, a school must have made adequate yearly progress (AYP) for at least three years in a row. In addition, 40 percent or more of the school’s students must qualify for free and reduced lunches.

The Title I Distinguished Schools in the Griffin-Spalding County School System are Anne Street Elementary, Atkinson Elementary, Jackson Road Elementary, Jordan Hill Elementary, Kennedy Road Middle, Moore Elementary and Orrs Elementary.

“It’s a great honor. It shows that things are going well in those schools,” said Ashley Mauser, assistant director of federal programs for the school system.

As a reward for being named a Title I Distinguished School, schools are awarded money to go toward educational purposes, such as instructional material, said Mauser. The amount that each school received was determined by a combination of its individual poverty level and the number of years it has made AYP, she said.

While Jordan Hill Elementary was awarded a certificate for making it on the Title I Distinguished Schools list for the first time, Moore Elementary received $9,810 for its seventh year on the list — or its ninth year of making AYP.