Gov. Bill Haslam speaks at the Superintendent’s Honors Banquet at the Chattanooga Convention Center on Tuesday.The keynote speaker at last year’s Hamilton County Department of Education Superintendent’s Honor’s Banquet was “Miss Tennessee.”
Tuesday night at the 2014 rendition of the annual event honoring the system’s top high school seniors it was her counterpart, Mr. Tennessee, who congratulated the county’s high achievers for their excellence in the classroom.
Gov. Bill Haslam gave the keynote address to 262 students from the county’s 17 high schools and their families at the Chattanooga Convention Center after Ralph Miller and the Swingtime Orchestra dazzled the reception hall with a live set.
Before high school principals read the names of his schools’ top-performing seniors, Haslam briefly encouraged the students to pursue a college education and remain in the state once they complete it.
“What you’re doing in excelling in academics is obviously a credit to you,” Haslam said. “But it’s really important to us as a state for us to say our students can compete with anybody.”