Madison City S2S Teams Earn Coveted National Awards at MCEC Global Training Summit

Heritage Elementary, Liberty Middle, and James Clemens High received the Pete Taylor Partnership of Excellence: 2025 Outstanding Community Partnership Award for their continued partnership with Meadows Elementary School on Fort Cavazos in Texas. The Pete Taylor Partnership of Excellence Award recognizes successful partnerships and projects that ultimately benefit military-connected children. Heritage S2S is sponsored by Amber Moore, Casey Hargis, and Jamie Ratcliffe. Liberty's S2S is sponsored by Nurse Benita Tunstill and Kittie Mingus and at James Clemens' Kimberly Stoecker and Major Rezell Linen sponsor S2S.

Rainbow Elementary, led by Lauren Hillis and Alicia Sullivan-Smith (pictured below), received the 2025 Elite Team of the Year Award.

Liberty Middle School Student Awarded 1st Place in MCEC’s Call for the Arts Contest

Each year, the Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) holds the Call for the Arts contest, which encourages military-connected students to create interpretations through art of what it means to be a military-connected child.

This year, Annabelle, who was an 8th grader at Liberty Middle School, won the first place award for the Call for the Arts in the middle school age group. Annabelle stated, “As a military brat, I’ve moved to many places, and I’ve met tons of interesting people. I remember the scenic views and snowy winters of New York, the beautiful sunsets and dry climate of Texas, Route 66 in Oklahoma, the wheat fields in Kansas, and the nature of Alabama. I see all of these places as my home, and I’m thankful for the people I’ve met, and the places I’ve seen.”

Liberty Middle School's S2S Members Visit Elementary School in Texas

A friendship borne out of mutual affinity for military sacrifice and service to community forged an ongoing and unlikely relationship between two schools.

For the fifth time a group of a dozen students from Liberty Middle School in Madison, Alabama are visiting Meadows Elementary School, a Killeen ISD school on Fort Cavazos.

The middle school students are interacting with their younger peers, reading and taking part in learning centers with pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students and doing a book study, writing project and STEM-centered activities with older students.

The Alabama students are all part of Student 2 Student, a service group affiliated with the Military Child Education Coalition that supports military-connected students and family members.

The visiting students call themselves “Texabama.”

They spent much of Wednesday morning in collaboration with fourth-graders on a book study and working to construct race tracks in the hallway.

Using Hot Wheels track parts and cars, the students tried out different configurations to launch the tiny cars as far and fast as possible.

The idea, said teacher Doyle Banks, was to build synergy among the students and together come up with innovate suggestions, not to simply follow a set of instructions.

The Texas-Alabama connection began at an MCEC conference in 2015, when Meadows campus technologist Stephanie Young and Madison Middle School nurse Benita Turnstill met through their respective S2S groups.

 The pair started brainstorming and haven’t stopped.

 They have connected over robotics, service projects, reading and writing and sharing life.

  Now, middle school students in Madison, Alabama look forward to traveling to the middle of Texas to interact   with children of soldiers.

  They also visited an early childhood center in Temple ISD where they donated one of two Free Little Libraries and played some basketball with children. 

 (Excerpt from article on Meadows Elementary School's website by Todd Martin)