At around 10 AM on Wednesday, February 9th, Eleanor Roosevelt High School received a surprise announcement over the intercom with Kool & the Gang’s song “Celebration” blasting through its classrooms. The announcement was that for two consecutive years, ERHS has had more than 90% of its students in the classes of 2015 and 2016 graduate!

To celebrate this achievement, a group of school leaders began parading around the school with a large banner that announced ERHS’s big accomplishment of increasing it’s graduation rate from 90% in 2015 to 91.5% in 2016. In recognition of this, the CEO of Prince George’s County Public Schools, Dr. Kevin M. Maxwell, shared a couple of words of appreciation for ERHS students.

“We appreciate your hard work, the support of your parents, [and] the hard work of the faculty and staff here at Eleanor Roosevelt High School that’s helping everyone to be successful,” said Dr. Maxwell.

Many ERHS students felt very enthusiastic about this honor. “It’s exciting,” said senior Inonge Kaloustain. “It makes me really happy for all of my classmates because I know how hard we all work.”

Senior Nicole de la Paz suggested how PGCPS can continue this tradition of high graduation rates: “PGCPS should continue doing their best to keep a balanced budget so that students could enjoy both quality education, as well as extracurricular activities, or events to help motivate students,” she said.