Gov. Haslam Visits South Side H.S.
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Governor Bill Haslam’s first stop at South Side High School, Tuesday was the library. He answered questions from faculty and staff. After 20 minutes, the governor made the trip down the hallway to check out the auto body and collision repair classes. “Here, like so many other places in Tennessee you have a lot of dedicated professionals, said Governor Haslam. “I met people from an algebra teacher that had every student pass the gateway exams to folks in an auto body class.” The visit to South Side High School shined a spotlight on the Automotive Youth Educational Systems Program. A new approach to hiring and training automotive technicians. Teacher Mark Barnett said, “We were highly impressed, excited, honored to have the governor come and visit our program.” The governor stressed the importance of having employees that meet the needs of businesses that are thinking about moving here to West Tennessee. “One of the things I want to make certain we are doing in Tennessee is training people for the jobs that are out there that might look like anything from auto body to being a health care technology specialist”, said Governor Haslam. Tennessee ranks in the bottom half of the country when it comes to education. A statistic the governor would like to see change. “While we are pushing to get better in Tennessee, we are saying we are not satisfied with where we are in education. It’s important that we recognize those people that are striving for excellence. I thought we saw some good examples of that today, ” said Governor Haslam.
