4 months ago
Gov. Sonny Perdue went to Warner Robins and Hawkinsville this morning to award the Governor's Cup to Northside High School and Hawkinsville High School.
The award was given to the schools for achieving more than three years' of growth in its students' SAT scores.
At Northside, Perdue made the surprise announcement to a packed gymnasium filled with about 1,900 students. They won the award in Class 5A.
"It's a proud day for the Eagles today," Perdue said.
"...areas that they had struggled with and tried to administer extra help in those areas," said Mark Scott, Northside High School principal.
Scott says those efforts combined with increased advanced placement enrollment and higher expectations helped boost scores.
Here's a look at the scores at Northside high School:
- 2007 1,410
- 2008 1,466
- 2009 1,521
Scott says this year's score's beat the national average of 1,509.
Students cheered for Perdue as he presented the trophy and a two-thousand dollar check towards academics.
"Northside is usually honored for football, but its nice to be honored for something academic as well," said Elizabeth Lambert, Northside Senior.
"I'm very excited to know that all our hard work, has paid off," said Rashaad Williams, Northside Senior.
Amid the celebration, Perdue told the audience he felt a hinge of sadness because the Eagles number one fan, Mayor Donald Walker was not there.
"He would have been right here and the biggest cheerleader... had he not passed away last week," said Perdue.
Before he left for Hawkinsville High School, Perdue challenged the students to bring him back for the Governor's Cup award again.
"There would be nothing I'd love better than to come back and celebrate with the Northside High flying Eagles right here, next year," said Perdue.
