Creekview High School is gaining statewide and national attention for its academics and media center.

The Macedonia school was chosen by Newsweek magazine as one of the country's top public schools. Creekview ranked 1,584 of the 1,662 schools on the list. It joined Sequoyah High School as being the only schools in the Cherokee County School District to have made the list.

Creekview's media center was named an Exemplary High School Library Media Program for 2010 by the Georgia Department of Education. Freedom Middle School's media center was also awarded the Exemplary Middle School Library Media Program for 2010.

The department only recognizes one elementary, one middle and one high school in Georgia each year. Both schools will be recognized by the state board of education during its meeting on Aug. 19.

Creekview High Principal Bob Eddy said the school was "excited" to learn of both honors.

"We are happy with being recognized for offering challenging courses and for kids taking those courses," he said of the Newsweek recognition.

Schools on the Newsweek list are ranked by the number of Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and/or Cambridge tests taken by all students and divided by the number of graduating seniors.

Eddy said 74 percent of roughly 410 AP exams given at Creekview last school year had a score of three or better. Most colleges and universities required a score of three or better for the student to receive class credit.

He the media center award recognizes the school for being "on the cutting edge of technology."

Media Specialists Buffy Hamilton and Roxanne Johnson, he said, have "done a fantastic job" in collaborating with teachers to make sure they have tools to further enhance their lesson plans.

"They've made it a very inviting atmosphere" for teachers, Eddy said.

Mrs. Hamilton, who said she was "humbled" by the recognition," submitted the school's application to the state to be considered for the honor.

Recipients were selected by a panel of judges based on the written application, the principal's narrative, a possible telephone interview and a probable on-site visit. Schools must have been open for a minimum of three years before applying.

Ms. Hamilton said creating a program that could win the state award "was a goal of mine" when the school opened in 2005.

"I wanted a high-quality program that's central to the learning and teaching mission at Creekview," she stated.

Creekview's media center, Ms. Hamilton said, provides up-to-date research tools and methods to help teachers and students. It also encourages feedback from users on how to make the center more personable and inviting.

The media center has 60 desktop stations and a computer lab with an additional 30 desktop stations. There are 16-mobile labs for classes to use in the media center and an LCD projector with a large screen. Ms. Hamilton said the library uses "Web 2.0" programs, such as Google Docs and Evernote.

The media center also is taking advantage of what's known as cloud computing to access learning materials. Cloud computing stores data on a central, external server that's accessible anywhere there's an Internet connection.

In the future, Ms. Hamilton said, the media center will enter the world of eReaders. They are in the process of ordering 15 Kindles and Nooks to test with a small group of teachers at the school.

Ms. Hamilton said the recognition of the media center reflects the school's spirit of "collaboration" between teachers and staff to make the learning experience enjoyable for students.

"We work together to explore alternative and traditional ways of learning," she said.