Evelyn Nereida Sweeney, bilingual third-grade teacher at Leonardtown Elementary School in Leonardtown, helped create and implement the school's Extended Day program, which provides students needing academic intervention with free small-group tutoring after school, three days a week, with their regular teacher. Ms. Sweeney teaches her own extended day literacy group and has been instrumental in helping the school secure the funds to keep the program in operation. Third graders at Leonardtown Elementary have posted some of the highest levels of achievement not only in the county but across the state. Almost every one of her students passed the 2006 state assessment—with nearly half scoring "advanced"—and every child passed the math portion with a "proficient" or "advanced" score. She helped establish a program called Minds in Motion, in which high school students provide after-school homework tutoring to elementary students. She also created the template for implementing Minds in Motion districtwide. Her work has helped set brighter futures in motion for all her students.
