Graduation programs cut

By Cindy Landrum  

SEPTEMBER 8, 2011 11:41 a.m. (0)

Most of the grants that have helped fund the program for the past five years have expired, forcing the program to be significantly cut back this year, said Grier Mullins, executive director of Public Education Partners, one of the organizations that started the program after realizing that one in four students who started high school in Greenville County didn’t finish.

One of the five schools in the program – Greer – will have a graduation coach this year to work with students at-risk of dropping out.

Karla Birkel is Greer’s graduation coach. She began working with a group of 25 students four years ago. All of them are still enrolled in school, Principal Marion Waters said.

The rest of the schools – Greenville, Berea, Travelers Rest and Southside – will have to rely on faculty or other staff members to check on the students already in the program, Mullins said.

“We had hoped eventually the school district would be able to fund the program, but with this economy, it can’t,” she said.

Forty-three students involved in the program earned their high school diplomas, said Marge Scieszka, former Graduate Greenville director.

The graduation coaches worked with 30 to 40 students who were struggling and their families to eliminate obstacles that might get in the way of graduation. The coaches met with students weekly, stayed in touch with their teachers to head off problems and made home visits.

Beth Daniel, the former graduation coach at Berea, got a job as guidance counselor there so she’ll still be in touch with students, Scieszka said. Drew Perry, the graduation coach at Travelers Rest, will work with some students at the school through his job with the Center for Adolescent Research in Schools, she said.

The other schools will connect faculty members with students in the program, Mullins said.

“Every effort will be make sure students in the program have somebody in the school they can go to and who is checking on them,” Mullins said.

Graduate Greenville had other components – a summer camp for rising ninth-graders deemed at risk for school failure and “Opening Doors to Success Day,” a day when community volunteers knock on doors of students who don’t show up for the first week of school – that were not held this year.

Mullins said Graduate Greenville has been a success.

“It called attention to the issue of the number of high school kids who weren’t finishing,” she said. “It raised community awareness. I don’t think there’s any question it was successful.”

Mullins said during the next year, Graduate Greenville will review its original plan from 2005 for its accomplishments, things that didn’t get done and what it needs to do next.

“We’ll continue the program, but it will be revamped,” she said.

The school district has better programs in place than it did in 2005 to meet the needs of students in different ways, Mullins said

A Twilight School allows students who have to work to take classes outside the regular school day, a credit recovery program allows students to take extra classes to catch up and students can take online classes, she said.

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