GRADUATION Center grads pass obstacles to get diplomas

The center is one of 18 in Ohio.
WARREN -- Some students who never expected to graduate will celebrate today how they proved that expectation wrong.
Life Skills Center of Trumbull County, a privately run charter school at 458 Franklin St. S.E., will hold its commencement at 6 p.m. at Packard Music Hall on Mahoning Avenue.
About 30 students who have passed all state requirements needed for graduation will be awarded state-certified high school diplomas.
"Our students have had to overcome some very difficult obstacles to graduate, but they committed themselves to their goals, and now they've succeeded," said Tom Kempe, the center's administrator.
The keynote address will be given by Thomas Conley, president of the board of trustees at the Life Skills Center, and also president of Warren-Trumbull Urban League.
The life skill center serves at-risk students and drop-out youths.
The Life Skills Center of Trumbull County's winter class joins students from 23 life skills centers nationwide who will graduate this month. They will join the more than 4,700 students who have graduated since the first center was founded in 1999.
There's also a center in Youngstown, among the 18 in Ohio. They are run by Akron-based White hat Management LLC, Ohio's largest operator of charter schools and the fourth-largest in the United States.
White Hat runs 40 schools in five states, employing 1,800 people to educate about 20,000 students.