Michael Neary / The Meridian StarEducators Leigh Ann Smith, Marcus Irby and Kim Barnes were honored by the Lauderdale County School District Wednesday.

For Leigh Ann Smith, reading has played an important role in her life for a long time.

But that doesn’t mean it’s always been a serious matter – especially when Smith is teaching English to her Clarkdale High School students.

“We find things to laugh about,” said Smith. “We laugh about the things we read sometimes, and question, ‘Why does the author do this?’ We try to laugh some each day, and I think that makes class more enjoyable for them and for me.”

Smith was reflecting on her work after discovering that she’d earned the Lauderdale County School District’s Teacher of the Year award during a ceremony in the high school library on Wednesday. She was also named the district’s high school teacher of the year.

Smith’s honor was among several throughout the day, including an award for best school district administrator that went to Marcus Irby, principal of Southeast Middle School.

Kim Barnes, with Southeast Middle School, received honors for the district’s middle school teacher of the year. Southeast Middle School earned honors for the school with the best attendance, throughout the district, in October and November. An announcement about the district’s elementary school teacher of the year is forthcoming.

Superintendent Randy Hodges emphasized that the district’s success flows those who work closely with students.

“It’s because of our classroom teachers,” he said. “The central office staff understands that. Our administrators over the district fully understand it.”

The gathering at Clarkdale High School included administrators, teachers and family members of Smith. It also included attendance by Joann Herrington, a retired English teacher who taught Smith when she was in junior high and high school at Clarkdale. Herrington said that Smith excelled as a student, but that her presence at school soared beyond that academic achievement.

“She took part in all areas of high school,” Herrington said. “She was a very outgoing student. She seemed at the time to enjoy her life – and she still does.”

Ken Hardy, the principal of Clarkdale High School, noted Smith’s ability to reach students, to develop connections with them.

“She’s able to reach the students that quite honestly most teachers cannot,” Hardy said.

Hardy lauded the test scores of Smith’s students, noting that “her ACT English scores were third in the state” for the spring of 2017.

As Smith thought about her own love of reading, she recalled reading with her mother when she was a tiny child. She noted the influence of fine teachers, but she said her fondness for reading predated classwork.

“I think it probably started earlier because my mom would read to me when I was small, before I could read,” she said. “I just loved stories.”

And it’s that love of stories – along with laughter – that Smith brings to her students.

Smith has taught for 16 years, all in high school English at Clarkdale.

Later in the day, at Southeast Middle School, Hodges announced Irby as the district’s administrator of the year, praising his work as principal of the middle school after moving from years of working at various high school positions.

Hodges also announced the district’s middle school teacher of the year, Kim Barnes, who teaches math at Southeast Middle School.

Irby said he’s served for eight years as principal of Southeast Middle School, after 18 years in a range of high school positions. Irby notices a fundamental difference in the middle school students, after working with high school students.

“The biggest difference is that what is a non-issue to a high school student may be a major issue to a middle school student,” he said.

He described middle school students as being in the midst of a transitional time that involves joining new groups such as sports teams — and also reaching an age where they’re beginning to question, persistently, what’s happening around them. All of that affects his approach as an administrator.

“I have to be very careful,” he said. “With middle school students, you can’t take it lightly. You have to show them that you care, that it’s part of the growing process, and that things are going to get better. Everything to them is much more monumental.”

Kim Barnes, eighth-grade math and Algebra 1 teacher — and an archery coach — at Southeast Middle School, was named the school district’s elementary school teacher of the year. Barnes is in her 22nd year of teaching, 17 of which have been in the Lauderdale County School District.

“I’ve always known I wanted to teach,” she said. “And I’m a firm believer that we teachers need to continue our education so I do a lot of summer workshops so that I stay up to date with changes.”

Barnes noted, too, the importance of earning students’ trust.

“I feel like you have to have a good rapport with your students,” she said. “If they like you, they’re going to try to do their best.”

Hodges announced, too, that Southeast Middle School had won the “Challenge 39” competition for best attendance during the 39 school days in October and November. Those are the months the Mississippi Department of Education uses to determine Average Daily Attendance. A significant part of a district’s state — or Mississippi Adequate Education Program — funding is determined by the Average Daily Attendance during October and November.

School district officials said Southeast Middle School’s attendance stood at 97.71 percent during those months.