Last Tuesday, during the regular meeting of the Thomasville City School Board of Education, Karen Kelso spoke about her experiences during the recently started Adopt-A-School Initiative. 

Kejar Butler, the board chair, opened the floor for Kelso and said that the entirety of the board had many great visits, but Kelso’s stood out, and so she’d asked her to bring a report and speak about it. 

“So now, we’ll have an Adopt-A-School spotlight,” Butler said. “We know that we’ve been going out to our schools and we’ve had a lot of great visits, but this one stuck out to me.” 

Kelso, a member of the board, adopted Thomasville High School alongside Russell Beckham, a fellow member of the board. Visiting on October 20, Kelso said that she intended to go and speak to students, as she had done months earlier. 

“I went on October the 20th, Thursday, and went during the lunch hour and my goal on the onset was to try and walk around the lunchroom and talk to as many students as possible, because that’s what I did back in August,” she stated. 

Kelso said that, due to misreading of the schedule, she didn’t get to meet with as many students as she intended, but saw one class that she admired for their orderliness, getting to watch them and the staff around her in action during the period. 

“They were just so orderly and they were just so amazing,” Kelso said. “I’m a people watcher, it’s just fun to watch students in action and it’s more fun to watch staff in action.”

Intending to make her visit about literacy, she said that one of the teachers invited her to meet with her class at the end of the period, giving Kelso some precious time to speak to the students.  

“She ushered me in and it was the very end of the period,” Kelso said. “So we walk in and I introduce myself and what my goal was, you know, that I had spoken to the principal and he had tasked me with coming up with something, someway to do something that was unique and different.”

A writing contest, or a reading and writing contest, Kelso said, was the biggest suggestion that the principal had, so she spoke to the students about what would motivate them to participate. 

“After I introduced myself to the students, it was a rather large class, I would say there was at least 25 students in this class, most of them were boys,” she said. “But I put it out there and I said, ‘What would ya’ll like to do? What would make you want to write, you know, have a writing contest?’”

The students said that they’d like monetary prizes, according to Kelso, like gift cards to Walmart, and one suggested that the prize would be a nice dinner for the family of the winner at a restaurant in Thomasville. 

“Those were the three suggestions that I got and honestly they’re reasonable,” she said. “I think it’s doable. I mean, I think that if that’s what they say would inspire them or motivate them, because by the time they end this contest, it’ll be near Christmas and that might be a huge gift for somebody.”

After concluding her report about her visit, Dr. Raymond Bryant, the superintendent, said that he agreed with Kelso’s views and that he was excited to hear from the students about what would truly motivate them. 

“I was really excited to hear that the kids, I think that too often we lose our tune because we don’t ask kids directly, ‘What would motivate you?’ so I too agree that I think that that is a reasonable carrot dangling in front of them,” Bryant said.