Marion County Supervisor of Elections Wesley Wilcox presented Vanguard High School with a special award during Tuesday night’s school board meeting.
Wilcox presented the school’s principal, Christopher Carlisle, with a traveling trophy for winning the 2018-19 High School Voter Registration Challenge. Vanguard boasted the highest student participation percentage of all seven public high schools, registering nearly 30 percent of its eligible seniors.
“This is a huge honor and I’m really, really proud of our students,” Carlisle said. “I want to thank Mr. Wilcox and his office for making this an initiative, because our vision for Vanguard High School is making sure we graduate students that are prepared to be good citizens and this is a huge part of that.”
The Annual High School Registration Challenge is aimed at increasing civic participation by registering and educating eligible students on the election process. The winning school is determined by the highest number of voter registrations based on the percentage of eligible students.
Collectively, nearly 3,000 seniors were educated on the elections process and 49 registration activities were provided by the Marion County Election Center during the 2018-19 school year. The next High School Registration Challenge will kick off this fall prior to the 2020 elections.