Warren County’s five public, private and parochial high schools produced 472 graduates this year, up from last year’s 439.

The smallest class was Vicksburg Community School, with five local grads and two from the school’s Pinola campus. The largest was at Warren Central, where 211 students received diplomas. Falling in the middle were Porters Chapel Academy with 26 graduates, St. Aloysius with 39 and Vicksburg High with 191.

Vicksburg reported $415,387.08 in scholarships and 4,113.5 hours in community service. The school also boasts this year Warren County’s only National Merit inalist, Ricky Tiwari, who also is he school’s valedictorian. In addition, the school’s graduation numbers were up by two, surpassing last year’s 189.

“We have had several students who worked really hard to go above and beyond in their service. They’ve done things all over the community,” said VHS counselor Lois Coleman. “We have some really great kids who earned some really great scholarships.”

Graduation numbers at all schools were up, except at Porters Chapel, where 26 graduated, a decrease of eight from the 2006-07 school year. St. Aloysius had two more graduates this year, and Warren Central saw the biggest increase with 32 more graduates than last year’s 179.

Porters Chapel Academy counselor Barbara Clark said that this year’s graduates “did very well. We had some excellent students who, academically, did very well, and we had several who went above and beyond the community service requirement.”

Scholarships for PCA grads were in excess of $100,000, Clark said. That total is down from last year’s $277,000. In addition, this year’s senior class amassed 1,701 community service hours.

Warren Central’s seniors topped the scholarship list with more than $1,257,400, “down slightly” from last year’s $1,818,000, said Principal Pam Wilbanks. Counselor Carla Smythe estimated the class had more than 1,500 community service hours. Last year’s numbers were not available.

St. Aloysius seniors were awarded more than $740,000 in scholarships, down from last year’s total of more than $1 million, said counselor Mary Everett. They accrued over 5,000 community service hours, up from 4,000 the previous academic year.

Click here to view theGraduation 2008 edition