Enhanced by a unique year of educational challenges, the West Liberty School District Board of Education heard about a “Dropout Prevention Plan” that hopes to get students at West Liberty High School back on track.
Superintendent Dr. Diego Giraldo spoke about the plan, noting teachers and administrators are “continuously working to support all of our students” in overcoming the year’s challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Creating the dropout prevention plan will allow the district to obtain funding in the amount of $275,061 in supplemental aid toward the program.
He said barriers are eliminated through interventions with students and providing other services such as counseling, monitoring, care or tiered support teams. He said curriculum redesign is sometimes in order as well as engagement with the family.
The superintendent said the goal was to eliminate barriers so students could be successful academically, personally and on target for a career or vocation.
Giraldo said the proposal focused on proactive and supportive actions that help students stay engaged and on graduation pace with their cohort. Currently, the district has a 97.17 percent on time graduation rate.
He called it “essential” that schools provide early engagement opportunity to parents and students, noting it starts before third grade when students set curriculum alignment and readiness goals, pointing out reading and mathematics skills are good indicators in achieving graduation.
The plan includes a spectrum of supports that span through all grades, beginning as early as preschool and kindergarten, Giraldo said.
It was pointed out that currently there are 14 students from eighth grade through senior who are listed as potential drop outs, including four seniors and five juniors. Currently, there is just one counselor per 334 students in the district and 42 percent of middle school students are listed in the at-risk funding/program.
Only one percent of students who do not graduate go back to get a degree and 67 percent of students are not chronically absent from school.
Dr. Giraldo said the long-term goal is to increase the graduation rate to 97 percent annually, along with creating classroom climates that support student success for everyone, plus, add a full-time social worker or resource navigator to assist with challenging cases in the district.
He said the district has a need to create a safe, nurturing and supportive school and classroom environment that meets not only the academic needs of students, but social and emotional needs as well.
The superintendent said the district needs to implement learning goals students need to master due to the COVID-19 situation and the district needs to conduct ongoing data analysis of effectiveness of current strategies focusing on academic success and on-time graduation.
Looking at those needs, the short-term goals for the district include providing counseling supports for students exhibiting academic, social/emotional behavior issues, as well as increase the percentage of students who remain on track and recover credits during the high school years.
Short term goals also include creating a family leadership institute to continue work toward increasing engagement and connection between schools and families as well as continue a partnership with organizations in the community sharing the career readiness counselor, Tanager Place K-8 and resource navigator to the district.