Visitors to Pine Grove School can’t help leaving with a smile on their face. The energy and love at that school is infectious.

"Ralph Waldo Emerson said 'Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm’ and the Greek translation of enthusiasm means spirit-filled. Walking through the school the people here are definitely spirit-filled," Principal Martha Rabon said.

As if to validate her statement, one teacher was seen giving out kisses on her way to the office, Hershey's kisses, that is.

Much of that spirit comes from a principal who exudes energy and comraderie.

"Mrs. Rabon sets the tone for everything we do,” Jeannine Noonan, a Pine Grove teacher, said. “Every morning she's out front greeting everyone. It's always such a happy place.”

Equally as important as the principal, students and teachers, the tone of the school is set by it’s appearance — from  from its homey cafeteria to the newly decorated and brightly colored library.

"We have so much pride in our school. When  you first walk in a school you have to look at how the school looks, it's appearance," Rabon said. "You can tell when you walk in that our school has pride."

The cafeteria boasts murals and decorative plaques on the walls, curtains on the windows and a staff that makes one feel as if they are sitting in mom's kitchen while eating breakfast and lunch.

"We feed 310-315 students for breakfast and 576 for lunch," Rabon said. "We have the best cafeteria in the school system and we're all like family."

Melissa Murphy, the new librarian, spent the summer hanging curtains making the library fit that concept.

“I painted with bright colors and reorganized the shelves,” Murphy said. “I wanted it to be somewhere (the students) want to come.”

Murphy said her husband built a stage around the library’s TV set with wood donated by J&W Wood of Bay Minette. The TV sits in the branches of a paper mache tree made by Murphy’s husband.

"There are a lot of people who could go to other schools or private schools but they go here and it's because of that pride and our sense of family," Murphy said.

But J&W Wood is not the only PGS Partner in Education. Streets, Moody Electric, Coastal Pie, Standard Furniture and Chuck Stevens are among the local companies that make donations to help with purchasing supplies, events and whatever the school needs.

The school was built in 1986, and doubled in building size in 2001. Rabon, who is only the third principal to serve in those 22 years, said the school is situated on 13 acres, so it has plenty of room to grow. And grow it has, from once housing kindergarten through third grades to its current population of 560 pre-K through sixth-grade students.

Those students are diverse, yet Rabon said diversity is what makes the school great.

"We serve several different communities, which range from poverty level to middle class and a low percentage of upper-class families,” Rabon said. “This socio-economic makeup is what gives Pine Grove its personality.”

The school employs 42 teachers and a typical class size is 18 students.

"I feel that a successful school, especially our school, has to be organized around student learning,” Rabon said. “We have well-qualified personnel to meet our school goals. As the principal, I lead and help my staff to be leaders."

It is a staff Rabon loves to brag on, starting with Murphy and her work on the Accelerated Reader program.

"We're getting ready for popcorn, movie and a drink for the top readers from the first semester," Murphy said.

In the AR program, each book is assigned a point value based on the book’s reading level, and students take tests to earn points based on the book they read.

"They have goals for each grade level, and they have to read the books and then take the (AR) test and pass it with at least 85 percent accuracy," Murphy said. "That's so they don't just go in there and click this and click that and say 'I took the test.' We want to make sure they are reading and comprehending what they're reading."

To complement the AR program, the school subscribed to the Reading Renaissance.

"All the AR tests are online," Murphy explained. "Before we ordered the books and ordered the tests with the books. If you didn't order the tests then and went back later to order them, sometimes the tests weren't available. Now all the tests are the Web so we have access to plenty of tests."

"The movie and popcorn is to celebrate that they accomplished their goal and got all their points," Murphy said. She said 11 students had earned inclusion in the celebration.

For those who may not have been a top reader, but did read and pass AR tests, they earn prizes based on points earned.

"Once they get to 10 points, they start getting AR prizes,” Murphy said.  “At the end of the year, anyone who has earned 200 points gets to be librarian for the day.

"It's just an incentive program to help them read more."

She said six students from each grade level were recognized for their high scores and 11 won AR prizes.

"We're hoping it will trickle over to other students and get them excited about reading, and it already has. We've already had students in here taking the tests and checking out books," she said.

Rabon said the theme for the reading program is Readers are Leaders.

Murphy said during her summer reorganization of the library, she put colored dots on the spines of the books to help students when they come to the library to look for books.

"The kids have a library card that gives them their reading range,” Murphy said. “We just finished the first semester so hopefully the reading ranges have gone up. The reading ranges are color coded, so they can look at the books and immediately see if it is in their reading range.

"It's a guideline to help them out so they're not looking at sixth-grade level books when they're on the third-grade level."

Everything at the school is designed to help the students learn and the teachers teach. And, the teachers are not the only ones running the programs.

There are student-run programs like the Tutoring Club where older students help the kindergartners with basics including letter recognition and counting.

Then there is the Alabama Reading Initiative, or ARI, which identifies students who are struggling with reading and helps them improve.

"We closely track our students who are struggling  and we keep working with them," Noonan, the ARI reading coach, said."We've done excellent things in reading."

In addition to the ARI, struggling students receive the additional benefits of a school classified as a Title 1 school including two full-time Title 1 teachers, an after-school tutoring program, a Title 1 instructional aide, a readiness program for incoming kindergarten students, parent workshops, professional development for teachers and other improved resources for students.

The teachers provided by the Title 1 funds are Laura Moorer and Pine Grove native Mary Blackmon, who spent 29 years as a regular teacher before becoming the Title 1 teacher two years ago.

"I call it double dipping, they get a double dose of reading, math or whatever area it is they are struggling in," Rabon said.

"I just give the kids a little extra that the teachers can't give them," Blackmon said. "I supplement what the teachers are doing, but they are the main ones. The classroom teacher guides my instruction by telling me what the students need."

The instruction does not necessarily end when the dismissal bell rings, because PGS offers multiple after-school programs aimed at helping students succeed.

The RISE program —  Realizing Individual Student Enrichment — includes four to five afternoon classes that meet Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. and utilize third- through sixth-grade teachers to help students with their weak subjects.

 "In the past we've been able to do second grade, but funding makes it difficult to do that now," Noonan said. “The program is paid for by Title 1 funds.”

Noonan has been the RISE coordinator for three years, and said the program typically assists 50-70 students.

"It has increased reading scores by 15 percent on the Alabama Reading and Math Test," she said.

Project TREE — Time for Reading and Educational Enrichment — offers students help with their homework, snacks and other activities.

"It's really great for working parents," Rabon said.

Rabon said everything that makes her school great boils down to the attitudes of everyone involved.

"We all value and believe in Pine Grove School," she said. "The one question I ask before making any decision is 'how will this action improve the teaching and learning experience at Pine Grove School?’”