What started out as $8,500 to present scholarships to outstanding seniors at Bellwood-Antis High School has grown into local contributions totaling over $53,000. The B-A School District presented those scholarships at an awards banquet on Tuesday evening.
The scholarships ranged from a $100 French Scholarship to a $5,000 scholarship from the Verizon Foundation.
Bellwood-Antis Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Rodney Kuhns, praised this group of graduating seniors.
“This senior class is outstanding,” said Kuhns. “I have been tracking honor roll performance in my 14 years with the school district, and this class has the highest percentage of kids on the honor roll since I have been here. We challenge each class here academically, and this senior class has won the battle to place more students on the honor roll in each of their four years.”
The B-A Class of 2003 has put up some impressive numbers in the classroom.
“We have 36 percent of our senior class on the honor roll,” said Kuhns. “We had 14 students score 1,200 or higher on their SAT test. That is highly unusual to achieve that.”
Scoring 1,200 on the SAT places the student in the top five percent nationally on the test. The B-A Class of 2003 placed nearly 13 percent of its graduating class in the top five percent nationally.
Not only did the Class of 2003 perform well in the classroom, they also represented Bellwood-Antis well athletically.
“We won four conference titles athletically,” said Kuhns. “The boys’ and girls’ track teams won their conference; the baseball team won their league, and the boys’ cross country team won their conference title. The boys’ basketball team came up a little short in their league, but captured the District VI Basketball Championship.”
The B-A Class of 2003 performed well in all aspects of the school setting.
“This is a really outstanding group of students,” said Kuhns. “Of the 14 years, this is the highest academic performing group who have traveled through this schools.”
Assistant Principal Diane Williams credits the community for their efforts in making this program grow.
“This community is unmatched,” said Williams. “I have never heard of a community that has made an investment in their kids. This is a credit not only to the school but to the kids and the community’s faith in education and what the kids can accomplish. This community has placed a high value in education. This gives the kids confidence in their future and what they can accomplish, and we have had very few disappointments in the years we have been doing this. It is a great partnership between the school district and the community.”
