By Sarah Campbell
scampbell@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Night school isn’t the first program the Rowan-Salisbury School System has implemented to keep students in school.
“Anything we can do to help our students stay in school we try to do,” Superintendent Dr. Judy Grissom said.
That means tapping resources from Communities in Schools of Rowan County, starting the Rowan County Early College and creating the LINKS program, which stands for Learning, Intervention, Nurturing, Knowledge and Student achievement.
Communities in Schools
Vicky Slusser, executive director of Communities in Schools, said her team tries to live the agency’s mission to “surround students with a community of support, empowering them to stay in school and achieve in life.”
The agency works under a “comprehensive model” providing basics like food and clothing, bringing in guest speakers to inspire students and initiating drug awareness campaigns, Slusser said.
With three full-time employees and seven part-time staffers who worked as site coordinators, the organization provided guidance to more than 470 students at seven schools last year.
They tracked, evaluated and documented students’ progress, empowering them to set goals and be held accountable for reaching them, Slusser said.
In addition to the paid employees, about 180 volunteers logged nearly 5,200 hours as tutors and mentors last year, helping the agency reach a total of more than 8,200 students.
Slusser said mentoring is an important part of preventing dropouts by fostering positive relationships.
“Our mentors encourage students and offer support that sometimes is missing at home,” she said.
And Slusser said the agency’s approach works. Last year, more than 95 percent of students were promoted to the next grade and 100 percent of them stayed in school.
Early College
The Rowan County Early College will graduate its first class of more than 40 students this year.
The school received start-up support through a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. It allows high school students to simultaneously earn a high school diploma and associate’s degree.
Cindy Misenheimer, the school’s principal, said the Early College primarily targets first-generation college-bound students and populations who are under-represented at colleges.
Since its inception four years ago, Misenheimer said, there have only been two dropouts.
She said the school’s small class sizes help teachers create positive relationships with students and monitor their attendance.
“I know when I was in a traditional high school, it would take us some time to realize a student had quit coming to school,” she said. “Usually that is what students do when they drop out; they just disappear.”
Misenheimer said it can be difficult for large schools to give potential dropouts what they need.
“Sometimes students get overwhelmed by their chaotic homes, are working too many hours in jobs, have been absent too many days or just don’t see the point,” she said. “They drop out because they can’t see a way out.”
The Early College also works to “sell a better future” by taking students to visit colleges, Misenheimer said.
“I think this helps them see that there is life beyond high school,” she said.
Misenheimer said some of the school’s students would have quit school in the traditional setting.
“We don’t have the magic formula, but Bill and Melinda Gates realized that a small school with caring relationships was key to lowering the dropout rate,” she said.
LINKS program
The school system’s LINKS program, which was formed using more than $6 million in federal grant funds, does just that: It links students, parents and teachers to resources to prevent drop outs.
The program funds a number of positions: a social worker at every middle and high school as well as early intervention specialists at all 20 elementary schools; two specialists to help Spanish-speaking families; and two transition counselors who help students returning to school after long-term placements such as youth development centers and residential hospitals.
Lyn Wilson, an early interventionist specialist, said a big part of her job is acting as a liaison between parents, teachers, administrators and the community. She often coordinates parent-teacher conferences that school staff can’t arrange.
“There are different reasons why parents might sometimes not respond to teacher requests,” she said. “It’s not they that they don’t care; I just think they don’t know how to help. They might have had a negative experience, they may not have a way and a means of getting to the schools, they may be overwhelmed or out of work.”
Wilson said it’s important to get parents and guardians involved because they know students better than anyone.
“Schools have the responsibility for the academic, social and emotional growth,” she said. “It just makes sense for us to work together.”
Tory Curran, a school social worker, said LINKS is really about meeting students where they are, working together to solve problems and finding success by “breaking down the barriers.”
That can include providing for basic needs such as food and clothing as well as counseling services for mental health issues like depression and anxiety.
“Kids are coming to school worried about a wide variety of issues and those very real concerns can make it difficult to focus on math or social studies,” Curran said. “Mental health counseling at the school provides them with a safe place to deal with those issues and gives them the skills to go back to the classroom and be successful.”
LINKS staff also work to connect parents to community resources like Rowan Helping Ministries, the Salvation Army and churches willing to lend a hand.
“Every child is different, every family is different so we try to see what they need on an individual basis,” Curran said.
Wilson said the program helps families “set the tone that hopefully will resonate through the years.”
“Our general philosophy is we will do whatever it takes to ensure the success of the child.”
Contact reporter Sarah Campbell at 704-797-7683.
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