Grier attended the Sanderson High School graduation today at Memorial Auditorium. He met several members of the impressive senior class. Congratulations, Spartans!

Rep. Grier Martin introduced legislation today that would ease the transition to new schools for children of military parents.

Rep. Margaret Dickson, along with former school board members Rep. Rick Glazier and Rep. Alice Underhill, also sponsored the bill, which would allow North Carolina to join an interstate compact that would work together to help military dependent children who transfer schools. The Council of State Governments worked with educators and the Department of Defense to develop the compact. The group plans to meet this fall to examine ways for states to help these children more easily participate in extracurricular activities.

The average military student changes schools more than twice during high school and most military children will be in six to nine different school systems from kindergarten to 12th grade, according to the Military Education Coalition. Frequent transitions between schools can delay educational achievement.

The compact would allow...

Rep. Martin attended the third annual NC State Graduate Student Research Symposium today. The Symposium was cosponsored by the N.C. State Graduate School and the University Graduate Student Association. The top students nominated by graduate students across campus presented results of their research, with the best receiving awards. Before briefly addressing the audience, Rep. Martin was able to view many of the presentations and discuss the results with the students. "I was amazed the the incredible breadth and quality of research going on at N.C. State," said Rep. Martin.

As part of a visit by children's book author Robert Sans Souci, Grier went to Hunter Elementary School today. Grier met teachers, students, and parents, in addition to Mr. San Souci. "As the parent of a five-year-old reader," said Grier "it was exciting to find a new source of reading material."

As part of Sanderson's "Legislative Day 2008", Grier visited Career and Technical Education classes at the high school.  He saw student- led demonstrations in broadcasting, advertising, engineering, and other disciplines and met many students and teachers in the program.  Joining Grier was his legislative assistant, Sylvia Hammons.  Sylvia is a both Sanderson graduate and the mother of a Sanderson graduate.

Grier jumped rope with a gym full of students at Washington GT Magnet Elementary School today.  Washington has a jump rope club that is part of a program to encourage life long wellness.  "It was a joy to see kids enjoying good exercise", said Grier.

Read more about the jump roping and see a picture of Grier trying to jump rope on the Raleigh News & Observer's "Dome" blog: "Martin Gets Roped Into Competition" and read the News & Observer article "Lawmakers Jump Rope to Encourage Wellness".

Rep. Martin visited Broughton High School today to learn about the Broughton Transportation Academy.  The Academy is a new School to Career initiative that exposes students to careers in aviation and other transportation career fields.  As part of the event, a NC National Guard Apache helicopter landed and was available for students to see up close.

Rep. Martin participated in the annual NC OPT-ED conference in Greensboro today. NC OPT-ED seeks to increase the number of minority students receiving doctorate degrees in science and math and is a joint program of NC A&T, UNC-CH, and NC State. As part of the conference, Rep. Martin saw presentations of several research projects.  An added bonus was a lunchtime performance by the 82d Airborne Division All-American Chorus.

Rep. Martin was the keynote speaker at today's Constitution Day Assembly at Durant Road Middle School.  He was asked to speak on what the Constitution means to him.  In his speech, Martin said that the Constitution means not just the freedoms it provides us, but also our duty to work hard to preserve these freedoms. The program also featured  performances by the school band, the chorus, and a dance ensemble, all focused on honoring our Constitution.