GALION — Staff and administrators at Galion Middle School are making leadership a focal point of the educational environment this school year with a new program called LEAD.

The program, based on the Seven Habits of the Leader in Me program, aims to recognize students who show outstanding leader ship skills and modeling of the Habits.

“We started a new LEAD class that is being taught during our Tiger Time each day,” said Galion Middle School principal Joe Morabito. “While every student will take the LEAD class during the school year, they don’t need to be in the course at the time they’re recognized.”

Teachers nominate students from each grade level at the end of the week, and the students receive a $5 gift card to different restaurants in the area. One student from among the weekly grade-level winners will be recognized at the end of each month.

“We make the monthly announcement of the grade-level LEAD winners — three each month — a big deal with a monthly assembly that features a different theme,” said Morabito. “Monthly student winners receive a special Galion Tigers t-shirt that can be worn any day of the week.”

Photos of the weekly LEAD winners, as well as the monthly student winners, are available on the Galion Middle School website at http://middleschool.galionschools.org/.

Contact Morabito at [email protected] to learn more about the LEAD recognition program or to be a sponsor of a weekly prize for students