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NAACP Back to School Rally draws a big crowd

By Bethany Fuller | Statesville R&L

Published: August 17, 2008

It is a good thing the NAACP decided to move its annual Back to School Rally to Statesville Senior High School.

It needed the room.

Attendance at this year's rally was up 40 percent from 2007, when 500 people came out to Third Creek Elementary School.

"We outgrew Third Creek," said Statesville branch President Woody Woodard of the more than 700 parents and students in attendance. "We are glad we have grown."

The event is designed to prepare Iredell-Statesville School students and their parents for the upcoming school year.

So many unexpected attendees came, organizers had to get more hot dogs to feed the crowd and turn away late arrivers.

I-SS Superintendent Terry Holliday said his goal for the next couple of years was to improve the district's graduation rate.

"I want to have over 90 percent of the students graduating," he said. "No matter what."
Holliday said parents, students and teachers need to develop a working relationship to benefit every child's education.

Many of the students and parents at Saturday's event have been to at least one before.
"I came last year and it was really good," said Charre Currence. "It does get me ready for school and that school is on its way here."

Diya Wilson brings her daughter Jada Blakney to the rally every year.

It's a good way to meet school administrators and get some of the questions for the upcoming school year answered, she said.

While students participated in drama and dance activities, curriculum refreshers and briefings on gangs, parents learned about educational Web sites, reading strategies and student services.
Salvation Army Capt. Glenda Priest brought a bus full of students to the rally. She said she wanted to make sure each of them was registered for school and to emphasize the importance of education.
"If we start out this way, this is something they can carry through the rest of the school year," said NAACP Education Committee Chairman Skip McCall.

Woodard said the rally is one way the community can help prepare the students for school and help I-SS move up in the rankings.

"I would like to see Iredell-Statesville leading the pack," he said. "We want to help make the school system great."