News: Mercer Middle School Told Why It's a School Worth Watching

Special to Viva Loudoun via Loudoun County Public Schools
(April 8, 2012) - It’s one thing to be named a national School to Watch.

It’s something else to be told why you earned this honor.

Last month, students and staff at Mercer Middle School learned why this honor has been bestowed on them during a school-wide assembly.


“What makes Mercer Middle School Mercer Middle School?” asked Principal John Duellman.
“To answer this, we can first look at you, the unique and valuable students and the qualities you bring to our school. You’re best defined by your optimism, your enthusiasm, your passion and your world view. And, best of all, your compassion and care for each other, both locally and globally.

“You made a decision, collectively, that nobody stands alone and feels isolated during the school day. You genuinely care for each other.”

Duellman noted that student-created service projects have benefitted the Loudoun Abused Women’s Shelter, Men’s Cancer Awareness, Loudoun Interfaith Relief, Breast Cancer Awareness Week and members of the Armed Services. The Mercer Smiles project provided cleft-palate surgeries for more than 250 children worldwide.

“Our recent service projects at Mercer are just as extensive as our academic accomplishments and continue to grow…because of your range of ideas, energy, motivation and generosity.”

“Mercer really does care,” said eighth-grader Ghnana Madineni, treasurer of the LEO Club. “A school’s reputation is held together by its students’ actions. By the reputation of this school, you can tell the students are fantastic. This is why Mercer is more than a middle school; Mercer is a family.”

“At Mercer, we are not just about ourselves and the number of honors and prizes we can accrue,” said sixth grade English teacher Becky Carr. “We are, above all, a caring community that continually reaches out to others; a community of individuals who look beyond ourselves to serve others and a community that is finding and defining the power of our own voices in the world.”

“At Mercer, every student feels like they are a part of the school,” said eighth-grader Ryan Peretin, vice president of the SCA.

“This is not an educational factory; even though most public schools are built on the factory model,” said Virginia Schools to Watch State Director Sandra DuTemple. “It is a place of caring.
It’s a place of high expectations. It is a place where each person gives a little bit of themselves and some people give more…Helping other people is the highest quality any of us can have.”

DuTemple said 19 states have committed themselves to the rigorous evaluation the National Forum to Accelerate Middle Grades Reform developed to determine Schools to Watch honorees. Since the first School to Watch was named in 2004, 300 schools have earned this designation, 28 of them in Virginia.

Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) has 10 Schools to Watch, the most of any jurisdiction in America.

“I think it’s the larger community – in terms of all of Loudoun County – that says ‘We know these standards by which these schools are assessed are very important and we want all of our schools to live up to them,’ ” said DuTemple. “…This could very well be a school division to watch.”

Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) Superintendent Dr. Edgar B. Hatrick III noted that Loudoun provides its students with buildings, supplies and staff. “What it takes to transform those ingredients into a real school community is a commitment; a commitment by students, faculty, parents and the broader community to make sure that what we have created is a real learning environment for middle school-aged students; something that is unique in the K-12 experience.”
Hatrick said students are the key to making a school work.

“You are the key component in what has to happen to transform this from a place to a learning community... At the end of the day, all those things that happen to you, for you, around you, it’s up to you, the students of Mercer Middle School, to make sure this is the kind of learning community that’s worthy of being watched by other people.

Mercer PTA President Karen Goodwin praised the school’s staff for all of the extra learning opportunities it offers students in and out of the classroom.

“Mercer’s staff offers them because they want to change the world by helping you find your passion and by giving you the gift of knowledge.”

She also praised the students for the good works they perform for the world at-large.

“You have shown the best example we could ever ask of our students.”
School Board member Jeff Morse (Dulles District) attended the ceremony.