Drew, Mississippi, is a community of 2349 people in Sunflower County, Mississippi. The land that is now Drew was first obtained by Mr. Jeff McLemore in the early 1870's. By 1897, Drew had a Post Office with mail delivered on mule back. The railroad began operating in the 1890's, locating its depot outside of Drew proper due to some type of disagreement with the landowners. The community then shifted from the original site for Drew, which is now known as North Drew, to the community's present location. The first store was opened about the same time as the railroad's arrival, and the first physician arrived in 1903.

The first school actually was located in what is now North Drew. It doubled as the church when itinerant preachers came to town. Later a school was established in Drew proper. Students attended classes in the upper room of a main-street store. When a two-story building was built for the school itself, the upper floor was used by the Masonic Lodge. The "little red school house" in Drew was built in 1928 in Drew with funds provided by the Julius Rosenwald Foundation, a group that donated funds to undeveloped, low-income communities. No longer used as a school, in 2001 with funding from the Mississipppi Department of Archives and History work was begun to restore the historic building for use as a community center.

Making history in more modern times is former Drew Eagle, Archie Manning, who may now be more famous as the father of Eli and Payton Manning.

Today there are 3 schools in the district: A.W. James Elementary School, which houses grades K - 3 and has a Head Start group located there also; Hunter Middle School, which houses grades 4 - 7; and Drew High, which has grades 8 - 12. Hunter Middle School, Drew's CREATE for Mississippi Core School, has an enrollment of 300 students and approximately 25 certified staff members along with a counselor and a federal projects coordinator whose position is shared with the elementary school. During the 2001-2002 school year, 8th graders were moved to the high school and 4th graders moved from the elementary school to the middle school.

Educators in the district have worked hard to bring needed programs and opportunities to their students. This year the Drew School District received a Twenty-First Century Grant that has provided for the ASCEND after-school program at the elementary and middle schools. ASCEND stands for After School and Community Enrichment for a New Direction. Fourth and Fifth grade students at Hunter are being served by the program at this time. The program runs from Monday through Thursday from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., providing academic tutoring, mentoring in core subjects, artistic, cultural, and recreational activities along with youth development and drug awareness training. Drew has also received the Barksdale Reading Grant and Power Pals Lab for the elementary school.

Technology has gotten a big push from Dennis Silas, Assistant Superintendent for the Drew School District, who has received national recognition from the National Rural Education Association for his efforts in advancing technology in education.

Selection Process

• Fifteen (15) students were to be chosen for the team – five from each of the grades fifth, sixth, and seventh.
• These students attend the STT class two-three days per week. They are pulled from their physical education (PE) class. In addition, the students meet after school on Mondays for the computer club (MECA).
• I was going to use a point system to select members of the team. Students interested in joining the team were given an application, permission slips, and an essay topic.
• Students earned points for quickly returning their application and their signed release forms. Students wrote a short essay that will get them more points for being neat, sticking to the topic, and returning the essay to me quickly.
• After passing out 35 copies of the application to students in the 4th and 5th period physical education classes, only 15 students applied to be on the team so I selected all 15.

Responsibilities

The Student Tech Team assists the Technology Facilitator in training and troubleshooting. Thus far, they have been invaluable in helping to train 4th grade students to use email. The Technology Facilitator trained the team in skills needed for such a responsibility then used the team to teach the younger students. Eventually, the team members became responsible for cleaning the faculty's systems, helping setup equipment such as projectors or scanners, and assisting the faculty members in Internet research and technology integration into instruction.