By Jamie Rogers
Morning News Reporter
Published: August 23, 2008
FLORENCE —More than 100 students that didn’t show up for class at three area high schools ended up having school teachers and administrators show up on their doorsteps Saturday.
Florence School District 1 educators didn’t show up at student’s doors to question them about their whereabouts but to encourage them to finish their education, said Fred Elmore, a West Florence High School math teacher. Elmore, along with other volunteers, visited the homes of about 118 students as part of the Graduate Florence, Opening Doors to the Future Day.
Graduate Florence, a district-wide initiative designed to lower the dropout rate, was implemented this year by Florence School District One superintendent Larry Jackson.
Currently, 7 out of 10 students in the district graduate — and that number is unacceptable to some.
This is why volunteers took a direct, face-to-face approach to let students know they cared.
Volunteer teams set out Saturday morning with registration paperwork in tow so students could be fast-tracked back into school. Volunteers were placed in several car groups and given the names and a
addresses of students who had not registered for school.
“We came this morning because we missed you, and we want you to come back,” West Florence High teacher Johanne Gibson said as she stood at the door of one student.
Gibson, Elmore and their teammates were given the assignment to find and encourage three West Florence students who hadn’t showed up for the first week of classes.
Two were already enrolled in other schools while the other was planning on coming back after completing a stint in alternative school.
“I think it was successful. I think we are getting the word out in the community ... District 1 does want these kids in school, and we will do whatever we have to to enrolled them and get them back,” Gibson said.
Students drop out for many reasons, but those reasons don’t really matter, Elmore said.
“The reason they’re not there is small— the important thing is what can we do to get you back,” he said. “When you ask ‘why,’ there’s that opportunity to become judgmental and make them feel lessened in some way.”
Sometimes it’s not even the student’s choice not to be in school, Gibson said.
West Florence High Assistant Principal Mark Fraiser said he encountered a student with those circumstances Saturday.
“ ... They had one check coming in the house. She was about to be evicted, but (the child’s) mother managed to raise the money and pay the rent for that month,” Fraiser said. “The child is not in school because the child doesn’t have any clothes ... the mother said she was praying, and she was asking God what to do.”
Fraiser said the group managed to get the child registered for ninth grade and made arrangements for clothing and supplies through his fraternity.
Most students in the district drop out in the ninth grade, Elmore said.
“When you first think about it, it seemed awfully strange that they would dropout that young, but in a ninth grader’s mind (they’re saying), ‘Oh, I’ve got to go four more years,’ and they’ve already been frustrated with school for some reason.”
A dropout’s annual salary is $9,200 less than that of a high school graduate, and dropouts cost the public $24 billion annually in crime and welfare benefits, Jackson said.
Additionally, recruiting new businesses to the area is easier when there is an educated work force there to greet them, said B. Frank James, a Graduate Florence volunteer and senior vice president of BB&T.
“The moral fiber of the community would be so much better ... So many more doors are opened with an education,” James said.
James said understands not everybody is designed to be a college graduate but that some residents might have other fruitful ambitions. That’s why schools need vocational programs, he said.
“Schools should provide something that is of interest to the kid, something that motivates him to return to school,” James said.
Graduate Florence is a partnership with the School Foundation, the S.C. Department of Education, the National Dropout Prevention Center, and the Mayor’s Coalition to Prevent Juvenile Crime.
For additional information, click here to view A Look at What's Happening this week in Florence School District One for the week of August 25, 2008.
