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MCLEANSVILLE — When Breana Phillips’ teacher recently told her and some of her eighth-grade algebra classmates they were going to see the vice principal, they got nervous.

“We thought we were in trouble,” said the Northeast Guilford Middle School student. “Everybody was scared when we came into the cafeteria.”

Instead, the students were surprised to find a party awaiting them in celebration of their success in the national Mathcounts program.
 

Northeast’s Mathcounts club was one of four in the state to reach the gold level. Teacher Glennan Saraceno signed up two high-achieving math classes for the program, although a few students from other grades and classrooms participated, too.
 

Almost every Friday during the school year, she handed out Mathcounts practice problems. Students had a time limit to complete them, without help.
 

“The problems are long, and they take a long time to do,” 14-year-old Michael Young said.
 

The word problems follow the regular class curriculum but challenge students in a different way than the formulaic problems and multiple-choice questions they usually do, their teacher said.
 

“The problems are much deeper,” Saraceno said. “They require a much higher level of thought.”
 

During the first month or two, the students weren’t excited about the problem-solving, but around November a “beautiful transformation” happened and they began looking forward to the challenge, she said.
 

“I think it was good that we did it because it showed us that there are problems out there that maybe we thought we couldn’t do, but we did,” said Dillon Peeler, 14.
 

Enough of the club’s students scored high enough on the quizzes to compete in the “Ultimate Math Challenge.” The students did so well on that 10-problem test, they earned the “gold level” designation.
 

The club was entered into a cash prize drawing with the other gold-level schools and won.
 

Saraceno used the money to purchase a medal for each club member and pay for a pizza party, complete with cake and blowing bubbles. Parents attended, too.
 

“I’m just really proud of them,” Saraceno said.
 

The students said they wouldn’t have succeeded if not for Saraceno pushing them.
 

“We have fun but get serious when it’s time to be serious,” Marquise Womack, 14, said.
 

Classmate Young agrees. “She pushes you really hard.”

Contact Jamie Kennedy Jones at 373-7088 or jamie.kennedy @news-record.com.