NATCHEZ — Two schools in the Natchez-Adams School District received state funds for high growth in their 2015-2016 state accountability scores.

This is the first time the state has disbursed the school recognition program funds, and the Natchez Early College Academy and McLaurin Elementary School each received a share of the funds.

“Everybody plays a part,” Superintendent Fred Butcher said. “We had a couple of schools that did really well.”

At a specially called meeting on Wednesday, the school board called teachers from both schools to the front of the Braden Auditorium. Each teacher received an equal partition of the money, which Superintendent Fred Butcher said he wanted to give to the recipients before Black Friday next week.

The School Recognition Program was authorized in 2016 and the year the Mississippi Department of Education allocated more than $20 million to schools across the state.

A school is eligible for recognition if the system scores an A or B or if the school rises from an F to a D or from a D to a C.

Schools which scored an A received $100 per-student. Schools which scored a B received $75 per-student. Schools which rose from an F to a D or from a D to a C received $100 per-student.

For scoring a B, NECA received approximately $10,344.

For rising from a D to a C, McLaurin received approximately $64,900.

The award is paid directly to the current staff of the eligible school, but no requirement says that past teachers who served in the school at the time the system became eligible must be paid.

This caveat, Butcher said, is an incentive for teachers to remain in the school district.

Butcher said in the meeting that variables can always hold a school back, but that rising above those barriers deserved recognition.

“McLaurin and Natchez Early College found a way to rise above all of the variables and showed that they gave the best possible instruction for students at their schools,” Butcher said.