ASHEBORO – The Randolph County Schools Board of Education recognized students from Randolph Early College, which was the top awarded school in the nation at the 2024 Beta National Convention.
More than 360 high schools from around the country were represented at the convention.
In total, Randolph Early College earned 32 total awards with five first-place finishes in the competition. It’s the third year in a row that REC has been the top awarded school in the nation.
“We’re here tonight because of students,” superintendent Stephen Gainey said at Monday’s board meeting. “We’re here because kids are doing great things everyday. The number of kids that spoke to me and had the confidence… they’re going to speak to you just like they’re 30 years old. They have that confidence because that’s what these competitions and these events that they participate in teaches. That’s what all these events outside the classroom are about.”
The five first-place finishes were in 7th Grade Spanish (Beatriz Vences Solis), 11th Grade Math (Alvin Liu), Book Battle (Lacey Allen, Kellan Auman, Mariela Campuzano Rodriguez), Convention Invention (Dida Ahmed, Noah Allsbrook, Dameian Elliott, Alvin Liu) and Reimagine Recreate Recycle (Dida Ahmed, Mariam Ahmed, Landon Allmon, Morgan Baker, Mariela Campuzano-Rodriguez, Jonathan Dean, Dameian Elliott, Harmony Huggins, Hannah McNeill, Christina Nguyen, Anna-Kaye Poole, Sha’Dayah Pugh, Benjamin Rietschel).
Class of 2024 – By the numbers
The board was also presented with graduation statistics for the Class of 2024.
In total, the school system issued 1,071 diplomas and five certificates for the 2023-24 school year.
Of those graduates, 323 students (or 30%) will reportedly be going to four-year colleges, 437 (or 40.6%) will be going to either community college, private junior colleges or a trade school, 267 (or 24.8%) will be entering the workforce, 39 (or 3.6%) will enter the military and ten students indicated that they were still undecided.
“One of the pieces of data that I always look at is the undecided students,” Gainey said. “That number fluctuated a lot during the pandemic, but now we’re headed back in the direction we were prior to it. I credit that to our teachers and staff. It happens all the way from K-12 but it really happens a lot when we get to that high school level. That’s when they really start making decisions on what they’re going to do.”
In addition, Randolph County graduates who are pursuing higher education were awarded more than $28 million in scholarship money this year.
The Randolph County Schools Board of Education will next meet Sept. 16.
