Superintendent Dan Sims on Thursday used the Bibb County School District's convocation to roll out “The Push,” a multi-year effort the district will use through 2028 that places literacy and attendance at the center of its strategy for raising student outcomes.

Sims told attendees at the start of the 2025–26 school year that the plan rests on three actions: align adults' efforts to established standards and student needs, adopt rigorous approaches, and deliver with “unshakable commitment.” “If adults in our system align our efforts ... and if we deliver with unshakable commitment to achieving success at high levels for all students then we will achieve unprecedented outcomes for the students who rely on us,” Sims said.

The superintendent framed the push as a districtwide cultural effort rather than a program limited to classrooms. He identified five emphases—clarity, conviction, coalition, culture and capacity—and repeatedly invited noninstructional staff and community partners onstage as a symbolic demonstration that the effort must include bus drivers, custodians, nutrition workers, safety staff, custodial and maintenance crews, paraprofessionals, nurses, counselors, technology and procurement staff, and others.

Sims cited recent district metrics as the basis for the push: he said the district’s graduation rate rose from 80.98% to just over 87% and that three high schools reached graduation rates above 90%. He also said dual-enrollment participation reached roughly 1,500 students and that the number of advanced-placement exams administered rose from 471 to 803, a 70.4% increase. At the elementary and middle-school level, Sims said the district recorded gains in state testing for two consecutive years, with 27 schools improving in English language arts, 28 in mathematics and 21 in science. He also said seven schools were recognized by the state for exceptional academic progress and two were identified as Title I distinguished schools.

Sims told staff that literacy and attendance will be the two primary drivers of district activity this year, and that the district will work to make expectations and resources clear for families and staff. “Literacy because we need for everybody to be at least reading on grade level or above ... Attendance because we clearly see that when students come to school they do significantly better than the ones who miss school,” he said.

District leaders also said they have invested in facilities, technology, public-safety resources and expanded extracurricular and advanced-course opportunities as part of the effort to raise student performance. Sims urged staff and partners to adopt a single-minded focus—“like the push” on a football play—so that the district's resources and people move in the same direction.

The convocation included student and staff presentations illustrating programs Sims cited, including arts performances, JROTC-style instruction referenced by a high-school presenter, FFA participation and a poetry performance. Sims closed by asking attendees to translate the convocation’s rhetoric into daily practice in classrooms and school operations.

The superintendent's speech laid out goals but did not propose new policy or request board action at the convocation. District leaders said implementation details and specific programmatic or budget actions will be handled through the district’s usual administrative and school-site processes.