Educational excellence campaign to launch in Washington

Four community organizations are starting a campaign for educational excellence in Washington with the hope that others will step up and help toward their goals.
“We’re trying to place education and personal growth as our community’s highest priority,” said Bob Griffin, president of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The NAACP of Washington County, Abernathy Black Community Development Education Fund, LeMoyne Center and Mel Blount Youth Home are sponsoring the Washington Community Campaign for Educational Excellence.
Griffin said the purpose is to engage the community, including parents, professionals and religious leaders, to help kids understand the importance of education. The campaign’s goals are for every child to graduate from high school and to attend college, technical school or other post-secondary training.
There’s a clear problem that’s been identified in regard to education – kids are not achieving as they could or should, he said. Griffin said plans for the campaign were well under way before the state released data in March showing that 47.54 percent of Washington students graduate from high school in four years. He said those numbers are more evidence that the community needs to emphasize the importance of education.
Griffin said he does not blame Washington School District for those problems because it is implementing a variety of programs to help students succeed.
He said it will take a community effort to help improve education. That effort will not replace the school district or be run by the district, Griffin said.
“This is not a duplication of the classroom setting,” he said. “We want to enhance what the school does.”
Instead, concerned citizens will do things like take kids to college campuses and trade schools, allow job shadowing, mentor children, take them on field trips and introduce them to the arts, history and outdoors.
He said community members can contribute their time, talent or energy to help kids.
“In these times, the community must respond but not let teachers or parents off the hook,” he said.
Griffin said it’s a growing trend around the country. In a variety of communities, like Cincinnati, Ohio, citizens are stepping up to help make education a priority, he said.
In Washington, the efforts will continue indefinitely.
“It’s not a six-month capital campaign,” he said. “This is a campaign that will have no end.”
He said the campaign will call on community organizations to renew their efforts or continue to do what they can to help children.
“We will send kids to organizations that can help them,” he said.
Griffin said the timing for this type of initiative is right.
“It is all of our responsibility to do this,” he said. “I believe that if we do it, we are going to see improvement.”
Griffin said a formal announcement and more details should be forthcoming in early May.