At a reception November 20, Superintendent Charlotte Placide honored 37 students representing some of the best and brightest in the East Baton Rouge Parish School System.  The high school students have been named the cream of the crop by the National Merit organization.

Our School System has the most National Merit Scholarship semifinalists, 18 students from two high schools (Baton Rouge Magnet and McKinley high schools), from the area and the second highest number of semifinalists from school districts statewide.  Finalists will be announced in the spring.

More than 1.5 million juniors in more than 21,000 high schools entered the 2009 National Merit Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT®), which served as an initial screen of program entrants. 

The System scored big in another National Merit competition, as well.  Nationally, more than 1,600 African-American high school seniors have been named semi-finalists in the 45th annual Achievement Scholarship by the National Achievement Scholarship Program.  Of those, nine students were from East Baton Rouge Parish School System – six from Baton Rouge and three from McKinley high schools.