CRESTVIEW — Richbourg School held their eighth annual graduation ceremony on May 18 in the school gymnasium.
This year’s graduation was a combined event with the Fast Track North school for the first time. Fast Track is a program intended to prevent dropouts by providing smaller, more specialized classes for students who are not able to achieve academic success at their regular schools.
Richbourg had seven graduates in its 2018 class, while Fast Track had five students in attendance.
School board members Tim Bryant, Dewey Destin and Melissa Thrush, as well as school superintendent Mary Beth Jackson and Crestview Mayor David CadleThe ceremony attended the ceremony.
“These graduates and the students, the staff and especially the parents are heroes in my estimation,” Destin said. “They have prevailed against adversity that I’ve never faced. They have done it through hard work, through an attitude that says ‘we never give up,’ and it is an honor to be associated in whatever small way with this school and with these students.”
Mary Beth Jackson congratulated the students at the end of the ceremony, saying she expects to see great things from them in the years to come and stressing the importance of programs like the ones at Richbourg.
“I was watching the faces of these parents as their children walked across here and received their high school diplomas,” Jackson said. “It just confirmed for me … we can never let anything interfere with these programs at this school. It is time, resources well-spent.”
Bryant hosted the ceremony and handed out diplomas to each of the graduates.
“We know that our graduates are going to succeed in everything they have set their minds to do,” Bryant said. “They have persevered through many hardships and trials and they have not given up. They have goals and dreams and they are pursuing them each and every day.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Richbourg School holds 2018 graduation