About 30 students from Columbia County's four high schools will be on stage at Evans High School today for the school system's summer graduation ceremony.

Summer school principal Chris Segraves said that's the largest number of students to participate in summer graduation since the school system started having the ceremony.

"It's an event that they can fall back on when they're parents and stress the importance of education to their children," Mr. Segraves said. "It brings closure to their high school career. It is a chance for them to be publicly recognized for completing their high school work."

Regina Buccafusco, the school board chairwoman, said the ceremony is a motivator for students.

"We really want to encourage as many students as we can to get their high school diplomas," she said.

Mr. Segraves said about 50 students overall are expected to earn their diplomas this summer.

He attributed the higher number of summer graduates to increased options for students to finish their course work.

In addition to summer school classes, students can take online classes or online credit-recovery courses.

Credit recovery puts students back on track for graduation by enabling them to regain credits for semester classes they failed during the school year.

"Many of the students this year were ones who didn't finish their online courses in time to graduate," Ms. Buccafusco said.

Some students also retook portions of the Georgia High School Graduation Tests this summer. However, Mr. Segraves said those students did not have to pass the tests to participate in graduation.

They will receive a high school certificate, he said.

The graduation ceremony will begin at 5 p.m.

Reach Betsy Gilliland at (706) 868-1222, ext. 113,or betsy.gilliland@augustachronicle.com.