With a goal of 100 percent graduation from Warren County schools, the Chamber of Commerce Education Committee will be taking to the streets later this summer in hopes of making its goal a reality.“If you don’t have a high school diploma nowadays, then you aren’t going to find any kind of a job,” said Motlow McMinnville director Melody Edmunds during her address to McMinnville’s Noon Exchange Club.Edmunds said the plan of the Chamber’s Education Committee is to promote an expectation of 100 percent graduation as soon as children start kindergarten.“We have a kindergarten promise program where the students promise they will,” Edmunds said. “We want to get the idea of graduation in their minds as soon as possible.”Edmunds said the good news is the Chamber is not looking for money in its 100 percent graduation initiative but instead is wanting the public’s help in reinforcing the importance of graduation.“We are encouraging teachers to refer to the graduation class their students will be in to give the students more of an ownership of graduation,” Edmunds said.As far as the 100 percent mark, Edmunds said they are stressing the importance of every child and aiming for lower than 100 percent would be saying it’s OK if some students don’t graduate.“We know every person will not go on to college or be a doctor, but it’s so important to have that high school diploma,” Edmunds said. “We want to help provide the expectation.”Edmunds said starting in August, there will be window and yard signs available at the Chamber to encourage 100 percent graduation.
Committee stresses importance of graduation