It was a meeting of highs and lows for the Sonoma Valley Unified School District School Board Tuesday night, as trustees recognized student achievements while hearing the latest on dropout rates.
First, Sonoma Valley High School recognized its students of the year, Thomas Hawing and the Carlson twins, Alexandra and Melissa. Micaela Philpot spoke glowingly of all three students before the board awarded each with plaques.
“We selected Thomas because he has consistently challenged himself on all levels during his high school career,” said Philpot. “As for Alexandra and Melissa, I am doubly pleased as I had the good fortune to honor them with this award when they were students at Altimira.”
Also being recognized were Sonoma Valley Adult Education students of the year, Jasmine Marks and Victor Ponce. As a native Spanish speaker, Ponce has overcome the language barrier, earning his GED in 2008 and has since enrolled in the school’s continuing education program to study computer software applications. Principal Pam Garramone called Ponce a role model for other adult ESL students.
Garramone also awarded Jasmine Marks, a student in the school’s Adult Basic Education program and a participant in the Adults with Disabilities program at Becoming Independent. Garramone remarked on Marks’ unflagging desire to speak to high school students about her disabilities as well as her many other accomplishments in the program.
Moving forward, the board introduced new Flowery principal Esmeralda Sanchez Moseley who said that the new position is her dream job. “When I visited the school in October, I knew this is where I wanted to be, so I am very excited,” said Moseley.
Next, Ethan Cohen (at right in photo), the current student trustee, introduced incoming student trustee Sean Hammett to a round of applause from the audience. Cohen adds his own spark to school board meetings but said he was very pleased to be passing the torch to Hammett.
During public comment, Dunbar parent Marina Zachau expressed concern over the school’s loss of yet another principal, the third in three years, saying, “The half-time position isn’t working. The students are here full-time so it’s important that we have full-time leadership.”
Justin Frese, assistant superintendent of business, spoke during staff reports about the many changes and upgrades in technology that will come over the summer. The district has interviewed and selected one company that will provide a new student information system, replacing School Loop and other systems in place throughout the Valley’s schools and bringing this technology up to state standards. Also, that company will streamline grade books, as well as current online communications including a network upgrade this summer that will provide interconnectivity between the various school sites around town. Additionally, Frese mentioned the new computer labs and COWS (computers on wheels) that will be installed at many Valley schools. Finally, Frese discussed his plan to commandeer and upgrade all 280 teacher laptops with help from local Macintosh consultant Café Mac.
Finally, onto the most anticipated portion of the meeting, the student dropout rate report by Kathy Summers, vice principal at the high school and Paul Tuohy, vice principal at the high school as well as Creekside High School.
Armed with a PowerPoint depicting credit breakouts and statistics, the pair described the requirements for graduation and the plans in place to help students along the way.
To graduate, students need to have completed 220 credits, passed the “CAHSEE” California High School Exit Exam and completed and passed their senior projects. Sounds like a reasonable expectation. However, many students get sidetracked or fall through the cracks along the way. Actual dropouts are students who leave without a destination, do not meet the credit requirements, do not meet the graduate course requirements and/or do not pass both portions of the CAHSEE.
If any of these scenarios is in the offing, Summers laid out the plan to get students back on track. The first step – when credits drop – parents and the school counselor are called in and the options are laid out, including summer school, Creekside, independent study and/or adult school for those students who reach the age of 18 and are still struggling.
“At-risk students sometimes need an alternative,” said Tuohy. “Last year at Creekside, we had 12 students graduate. And although we saw 90 students that year, only nine of the ninety were considered actual dropouts.”
How can that be? Because when analyzing the straight numbers posted on the California Department of Education website, there is no way to tell why students left school. For instance, looking at the dropout rates for the high school’s class of 2004, it appears that there were 432 students as freshman but only 325 students at graduation.
“At face value these numbers are alarming,” said Tuohy. “But it’s misleading because it’s just counting those students who have come and gone regardless of to where.”
So, do our dropout rates look bad when all things are taken into consideration? The answer offered to that question was “No.” Over the past five years, the high school recognizes fewer than ten true dropouts – cases where a student has left and was never heard from again.
In large part, this is due to the efforts of high school staff and the programs in place to keep at risk kids in school.
“If on June 5 a student leaves our door without a diploma or a plan to get one, we’ve lost our opportunity with that student,” said Summers. “We try to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
The next board meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 26 at the district office on Railroad Avenue. That special board meeting will be held to hear public comment on the district’s strategic plan and to discuss possible revisions.
