Dr. Bridal, a district official speaking for the Newton County School System, announced that the district’s 2025 graduation rate is 90 percent, and said this marks the fourth consecutive year the rate has been at or above 90 percent. "If you'll recall last school year, we declared that our annual graduation rate would be more than just a statistic," Dr. Bridal said, noting the district redefined the metric to track the percentage of students who transition "into the world of college, work, service, and entrepreneurship."

The redefinition of the graduation measure, which Dr. Bridal said took effect last school year, is intended to treat the rate as "a community metric, an indicator of the overall health of our school system and a reflection of our ability to prepare students to pursue their dreams." She added, "I am proud to announce that the Georgia Department of Education has just announced that our 2025 graduation rate is an amazing 90 percent."

Dr. Bridal said students from Newton High School, Eastside High School and Alcovy High School joined the announcement along with district staff, principals, civic leaders, elected officials and board members to recognize the accomplishment. "This success is not the work of any 1 person or 1 school, it's the result of a collective effort of our entire community," she said, thanking coaches, bookkeepers, counselors, teachers and parents for their roles.

Dr. Bridal framed the 90 percent figure as progress while emphasizing the district’s stated goal of further improvement: "When we think from a student perspective, that's 9 out of 10 students. But wait, our mission statement is educational excellence for all students. So 9 out of 10 just isn't good enough. So know that we are working and we are striving to make sure it's 10 out of of 10 for the next time and for years to come."

The announcement was celebratory in tone and did not include any formal board action, vote, funding decision or new policy adoption. It reiterated the district’s prior change in how it measures graduation outcomes and set a forward-looking goal of improving the percentage of students who make postsecondary transitions.

Dr. Bridal closed by thanking the community and saying, "Congratulations, Newton County. You've made history again."