Nashville Mayor Karl Dean said school is the most important thing a city does.
Thursday, volunteers filled the backpacks will school supplies to give away Sunday at the Mayor's First Day of School FestivalA Sales Tax Holiday will be observed Friday through Sunday. Consumers may buy selected clothing, school supplies and computers without paying state and local sales tax during the three-day weekend. more>>
NASHVILLE, Tenn.- Backpacks along with other free materials were given out for free to students in Metro Public Schools Sunday. All students had to do to get the free materials was go to the Mayor's First Day Celebration.
More than 20,000 kids and parents packed the Sommet Center to kick off the upcoming school year.
More than a 100 non profit groups were there to provide parents with advice, and help with the new year.
Some parents said there's still a lot of work to do for the school district. For the fifth year, the district failed to meet certain education standards.
"I want to the test scores to go up and for us to be just as good as the private schools," said parent, Jonathan Hodges.
"I'm just committed to doing everything we can to have the school system our students deserve," said Mayor Karl Dean.
Volunteers Thursday filled the backpacks will school supplies. Thursday, the mayor said he was excited about meeting the children and their parents.
"Education is the most important thing we do as a city and we should be celebrating the first day of school and getting our kids excited about going back to school, and certainly we want to encourage them in every way we can, and certainly this is a good way to do it," said Mayor Karl Dean
The First Day of School Festival was Sunday from 2:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon at the Sommet Center. School then starts in Metro on August 11th.
