Gene Bottoms Pacesetter Award Winner Schools Sessions
2026 Pacesetter Award Winner Sessions
The best way to learn from our Pacesetter winners is to hear it from them. That is why each year all of our winners offer at least one session at our conference to explain what helped them win and how you can implement it into your own school.
While you wait for the conference to start, learn some of our past winners’ stories by listening to their episodes of our Making Schools Work Podcast. You can find our Pacesetter Spotlight episodes below.
2026 Pacesetter Sessions
Come to the Pacesetter winner sessions at the 2026 Making Schools Work Conference in order to see how each of these schools grew and improved, leading to them becoming a Pacesetter winner, and learn how your school can do the same thing.
Pacesetter Spotlight: Bryant Park Elementary’s Art Integration Program
In this episode, Daniel Rock and Jason Adair delve into the remarkable journey of Bryant Park Elementary, an SREB Pacesetter School in Jefferson County, Alabama.
We talk to Principal Cortney Slaughter and teacher Alex Wilson about how they built a thriving school from the ground up since its opening in 2020.
Pacesetter Spotlight: Richland High School’s AP Program and Career Connectedness
Welcome back to Part 2 of our special episode with Richland High School in Mississippi! In this continuation, Principal Marcus Stewart and Assistant Principal Heather Bryan delve deeper into the strategies and systems that have driven their school’s remarkable growth.
Pacesetter Spotlight: Richland High School’s Flex Block
Welcome to a special two-part episode of the Making Schools Work podcast! In this first installment, we’re joined by Richard Morrison, senior leadership coach at SREB, as he discusses his three-year partnership with Richland High School in Mississippi. We also hear directly from Richland High School’s principal, Marcus Stewart, and assistant principal, Heather Bryan, about their incredible journey of improvement.
