Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker principal of Carolina High School and Academy strolled from the stage at commencement inside the Bon Secours Wellness Arena and approached the rows of graduating seniors He wore a navy blue-and-orange graduation gown that bore the signatures of the seniors sitting before him The seniors had signed that same gown in August They had written their names in silver pen on the navy fabric It was their pledge to graduate Those seniors saw their pledge every day of the school year The gown hung in the school’s front office for all to see Delaney wore it when he gave pep-talks to the senior class Graduated from the highest poverty high school in Greenville County at a rate never before seen in school history fewer than half of Carolina’s senior class walked across the stage at graduation to receive a diploma There were plenty of reasons; many lived in poverty in an area of the county left behind from mill working days and now filled with dilapidated houses and trailer parks moving in and out of the area and many came from families where no one had graduated high school before Others cared for their siblings or worked to help the family survive But Delaney – and an entire teaching and administrative staff – decided the reasons students dropped out could be overcome He used the gown-signing to set the stage for each class’s success followed it with early mornings and late nights helping students intervening when needed and searching for students to bring them to school Teachers restructured how they taught to fit a brand-new New Tech program The school started a Grace Fund to help struggling families after a steady rise for five straight years 76 percent of Carolina seniors graduated June 1 or are on track to graduate this summer they became the first in their family to receive a high school diploma All of that history and accomplishment welled up inside The Well on Wednesday as Delaney spoke to his seniors for one final time MID-YEAR REPORT: Carolina seniors re-focus on graduation goal BIG REVEAL: Carolina High surprised with graduation regalia his words reverberating through his mic and off the walls as he spoke of the students doing whatever it took to graduate and of their need to continue to find a future where their purpose and passion intersect to bring fulfillment for what you have done and I am so very proud of you because some of you have overcome things that I couldn’t even imagine going through to be here today to walk across this stage,” he told them He told them they get to graduate because they earned it He said they now have more opportunities in life because they received a degree and assistant principal Marjon Ford read the names of 143 graduating seniors As they walked across the stage and Delaney handed them their diploma “It’s unbelievable how much the teachers and the administrators put into us,” said graduate Zaylen Andrews “You can actually feel the love in the room They actually care about you and your future.” He’s done it for years with every graduate EDITORIAL: Carolina students on the right track you always said that you would finish and you did You made it and I am so very proud of you.” Carolina began the year with 129 seniors — “we picked up a few along the way,” Delaney said which don’t count toward the graduation rate Nine more are expected to finish classes this summer and graduate in August administrators set an ambitious goal to graduate 85 percent of the senior class That would include every student other than the roughly 15 percent involved in the occupational diploma program Part of Carolina leadership’s task has been to build a culture where graduation is expected but now we have to sustain the culture,” he said “Doing that is just putting good people around all of our students.” That’s what’s made this school year special Alumni from near and far got involved in students’ lives businesses all became a part of encouraging a culture where graduation is attainable alumni and families to stay involved to motivate and mentor students to keep them on track As the recessional played Five for Fighting’s “100 years,” teachers formed two lines that newly-minted graduates passed through on their way up a set of steps to meet their families Students again stopped to hug faculty and administrators A line pooled as grads waited to greet their principal one last time And senior after senior pointed to where they had signed his gown back in August proving to themselves again that they’d completed their pledge Da Paolo Tessione - April 14 mother of the 6-year-old who disappeared from Racale over 40 years ago is shaped like a scar on the hand of one of the richest men in the world no one is unbuttoned: the investigations at the moment do not seem to converge in that direction Bianca noticed a scar very similar to the one Mauro also had I recognized two scars: one on the eyebrow when he disappeared without a trace at the age of six leaving his parents in a limbo that still lasts today The facts date back to 21 June 1977 and only today does a turning point arrive that could finally lead to the conclusion of one of the most shocking cases in the Italian news Mauro Romano would have been rapt by a man whom the child affectionately called 'uncle' perhaps to be sold to one wealthy family according to the latest track that is trying to shed light on that mystery that has upset Salento