By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Administrators at Thompson Middle School transformed the school’s cafeteria into a scene resembling “The Price is Right” on Oct. 25, as more than 300 students applauded and cheered as their classmates’ names were read.

As TMS Assistant Principal Kelly Smitherman read about 40 names, the kids walked one-by-one to the front of the room while they received praise from their peers. As the kids who won the drawing reached the front of the room, they received cards for free items from local restaurants, or even $20 gift cards donated by local Farmers Insurance agent Kelley Summerlin.

The 305 TMS students were invited to the special event after they recorded perfect attendance for the first nine weeks of the school year. The event marked the school’s first perfect attendance celebration.

“That’s no absences, no tardies or anything,” Smitherman said before the ceremony. “We do a lot of things for academics, but the state has been putting a lot of emphasis on attendance, so we wanted to do something for the students who have perfect attendance.”

Each nine weeks this school year, TMS will invite students who have perfect attendance to a ceremony similar to the one held on Oct. 25. During the ceremony, school administrators will draw names from the group to receive prizes donated by local businesses.

At the end of the school year, the school will place names from all four nine-weeks perfect attendance ceremonies into a drawing for big prizes, such as an iPad.

“You can get your name back into this box by keeping up your perfect attendance for the next nine weeks,” Smitherman told the kids. “You have an opportunity to have your name in this box up to four times for the drawing at the end of the year. You just have to come to school every day.

“For those of you here today, this is huge,” Smitherman added. “You can give yourselves a hand and a pat on the back.”