Relationships Key To Keeping Kids In SchoolWINONA LAKE - Throughout Education Summit XVII Tuesday morning, attendees heard one of the keys to keeping students in school was "relationship building."
The Warsaw/Kosciusko County Chamber of Commerce holds the summit each year. This year's theme was "Keeping Kids in School ... A Community's Response". It features a keynote speaker and three panel discussions.
Keynote speaker was Dr. Barry Kanpol, IPFW School of Education dean.
There's a difference between educating and schooling students, he said. Schooling to him is about test taking, regurgitation and memorizing without understanding.
Kanpol said he tells people not to count kids out. Every student learns a different way. Not all parents can buy their student a good education.
He also said teachers are under the gun today. When he goes to schools today, teachers are more frustrated than ever because mandates put on them stifles their creativity in the classroom.
"Teachers can not do all the work," Kanpol said. Schools and businesses must combine to build a curriculum that is relevant to the students.
He also talked about the relationships he had with his teachers and mentors.
The first panel discussed the Kosciusko County dropout prevention program.
Ot Schroeder, State Farm Insurance agent, said the dropout prevention committee began meeting last summer. Warsaw, Tippecanoe Valley and Wawasee schools are all part of the program.
One of the ways to approach dropout prevention, Schroeder said, is doing something at the local level. The two key words for the program are engagement and relationships, he said.
JoElla Smyth, Edgewood Middle School principal, said that while the high schools have the graduation coaches, the committee also looked at kids in the elementary schools.
Kids Hope works with students in first and second grade. Big Brothers Big Sisters and Baker Youth Clubs mentors students in grades three through eight.
Smyth said they ask volunteers to come in for a minimum of one hour per week. Businesses provide mentors, but individuals also may volunteer. A background check and training is conducted.
With the graduation coaches, Tippecanoe Valley High School Assistant Principal Mike Schmidt said, students will have a future story. Students at Valley are selected for the program based on 14 at-risk indicators.
Ben Rogers, Valley graduation coach, said the number one focus is to build relationships with the students. He said his students have opened up a lot to him.
The second panel focused on teen parent support and freshman academies.
Kelly Kaase, Teen Parents Succeeding at Wawasee, said besides childcare, TPS also offers life skills classes and one-to-one meetings to students.
Heartline Pregnancy Center, said Angie Wood, based its Teens 'N' Tots program on TPS. While child care gets the teen parents in the door, they focus on more than that.
One of the purposes of the Tippecanoe Valley Freshman Academy, said Alissa Trippiedi, is to reduce the failure rate of students their freshman year, and to make the transition from eighth to ninth grade easier.
Warsaw Community High School Freshman Assistant Principal Terry Roe talked about the "A-Team" at the school. Freshman are pared up with upperclassmen who serve as mentors and role models.
Last of the panels focused on alternative schools.
Abigail Slone, Warsaw Alternative Learning Center, said the goal is to get students to transition back to their home school. Slone said it's important she builds relationships with her students, but there are expectations in place.
Wawasee Academy Director Anne Rackley said the academy is more geared toward credit recovery and dropout prevention rather than expulsions and in-school suspensions. Half of the kids there are full time and don't attend the high school at all.
"It's all about relationships," she said. "I love this job more than any other job. In the last 10 years, I feel like I've made more of a difference than I ever had."
Amber Pace is a Wawasee student completing her studies this week.
"Thanks to the academy, I'll be the first person to graduate from my family," Pace said.
Micah Lukens talked about Valley's alternative learning school at Burket. One of the neat things about the alternative school, he said, is the curriculum is computer based. Students can work at their own pace, and it allows students and teachers to have one-on-one time.
In the past seven years, Lukens said, 135 students graduated.
Shalena Hughes was one of those graduates. Her sophomore year, she found out she was pregnant. She finished that year out, but didn't return to the high school. Instead, she completed her junior and senior year at Burket.
Not only did Hughes graduate, but she will be the first in her family to go to college.
"I probably wouldn't have graduated if not for Burket," she said.
