By Tricia Pursell
Melinda Bugg quit school in eighth grade.
The Shamokin resident says she dropped out because of family issues, that she was needed at home to take care of her younger brothers and sisters. A few years later, she had a son, Landon.
Landon was Bugg’s inspiration to resume her education four months ago.
“I don’t want him to have to need anything,” Bugg, 20, said. “I want him to not have to ask people for help.”
Of the 244 Valley high school dropouts in the 2006-2007 academic year, Shamokin and Shikellamy led with 46 each. That represents 5.2 percent of enrolled high school students at Shamokin, and 4.3 percent at Shikellamy.
The average high school dropout rate in the Valley’s other 10 districts — Danville, Lewisburg, Line Mountain, Midd-West, Mifflinburg, Milton, Mount Carmel, Selinsgrove, Southern Columbia and Warrior Run — is 1.52 percent.
The state average is 1.6 percent.
Superintendents James Zack, of Shamokin, and Al Lonoconus, of Shikellamy, cite socioeconomic factors as a problem with student retention.
“Poverty is always an issue,” Zack said. “It’s a life-threatening situation. We need to address it not as a school, but as a society.”
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that 22,000 — or 17 percent of Valley residents over age 25 — do not have a high school diploma. About 3,000 — or 16 percent of those ages 18 to 24— have not graduated.
In an August report, Lonoconus said violence, poverty and parenting issues were obstacles to the student population. In a previous interview, he said there has been a struggle to make some district parents realize the importance of education.
Because 20 percent of the district’s residents do not have a diploma, Lonoconus said, they may not see the value of education.
Lonoconus was not available for comment last week.
Why drop out?
A 22-year-old Lewisburg resident, who asked to remain anonymous, said he quit as a sophomore because he disliked school — the top reason students give for dropping out, according to the state Department of Education.
School was getting in the way of his attempts to work out personal issues. He was not doing well in classes at the time, and was most likely not going to move on to the next grade, he said.
“I didn’t want to go to college anyway,” he said.
The state Department of Education, in its 2006-2007 study, reported that 45 percent of dropouts said they quit because they disliked school. Nineteen percent said they wanted to work, and 18 percent cited academic problems.
State education spokesman Michael Race said there is one often-overlooked reason: boredom.
“That boredom of not being challenged leads them to think of high school as not worth their time,” he said.
Broken homes, or having incarcerated parents, are other reasons students quit, said Bonnie Wallace, a Central Susquehanna Intermediate Unit employee in an alternative placement program.
“As much as we try, these kids return to those same environments,” said Wallace, a teacher for 25 years. “Some of my kids are here long-term because they don’t have a place to go.”
Television, music and drugs — all of which are different than they were 25 years ago — can negatively influence today’s youths, Wallace said.
While Wallace echoed that some students quit school because they need to get jobs to support their family or their own children, Karin Shipman said other social issues are also at play.
The assistant CEO of the SusQ-Cyber Charter School, established in 1998, says some students “don’t feel safe in the traditional setting anymore.”
The cyber school helps cater to those in grades 9-12 who may not be able to stay in a public school setting because of raising children, or dealing with health or bullying issues.
Harassment in public schools, Shipman said, is the biggest reason students apply to the cyber school.
The economic effect
Beginning in 2012, Central Pennsylvania could begin to experience the initial effects of an aging work force as the population 55 and older grows at a much faster rate than the replacement generation under age 30, said Shannon Miller, acting executive director at Central Pennsylvania Workforce Development Corp., Lewisburg.
“The region needs everyone to be prepared to enter the work force with the skills and knowledge required to support the businesses that currently exist and those that are yet to be developed,” Miller said.
Eighty percent of the fastest-growing fields require training beyond high school, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.
The jobless rate in 2006 for high school graduates was 4.3 percent; for dropouts, 6.8 percent, the bureau reported.
Years ago, a high school diploma or GED didn’t matter, said Sue Snyder, site administrator of the Snyder County CareerLink in Selinsgrove. But now, older workers who never got a diploma have been laid off from their jobs, and don’t have the skills or education necessary to get a new one.
Had the 251 students who dropped out of Valley high schools in 2005-2006 graduated, “projections indicate that the economy would have benefited from an additional $65 million in income over the lifetimes of those students,” according to a Columbia University study.
Technical education may help some students to stay in school and develop marketable trades, said John Bohn, administrative director of SUN Area Career & Technology Center in New Berlin.
“Many times, the real-life technical aspect helps them steer away from those social issues that can take them down the wrong path,” Bohn said.
Positive feedback received from a technical education or career can lead them in a positive direction, he said.
“It’s a known fact that not all students learn the same, and because they have different learning styles, sometimes academic subjects in the pure sense, do not catch their interest at any given point of time while they are in school,” Bohn said. “Due to that fact, they look for real-life applications of what they like to do. That’s where the world of technical application really grabs a hold of their interest.”
After quitting school, the current 22-year-old Lewisburg man got a job while still living at home.
But two years, ago, he was laid off, and had to look for other employment.
That’s when he walked through the doors of a local CareerLink office. There he was encouraged to obtain his GED, and helped to find a new job, which he has to this day.
“More than ever, we are seeing more youth that need to find employment,” said Courtney Hamm, youth director for CareerLink’s Central Region Youth Program.
CareerLink’s Vicky Sample, of Snyder County, and Melissa Farrow, of Northumberland County, are youth specialists. Sample deals mainly with students who are in school and contemplating dropping out. Her job is to prevent them from quitting.
Farrow works with those who have quit, most of whom come to the CareerLink without a GED or a diploma. For these people, finding a job is often an urgent need. She works to help them find employment, while also helping them complete a diploma program.
Prevention
Schools focus more on tracking graduation rates than they do dropout rates, said Zack, the Shamokin superintendent.
His district, he says, has made progress in helping children to continue in their education. It offers an alternative education program for middle school pupils, and when students show interest in dropping out, intervention is attempted through meetings with the principal.
In his August report, Lonoconus listed efforts Shikellamy is taking to help reduce the dropout rate. The district is making more referrals to guidance counselors and the middle school is holding anti-bullying and anger-management groups. The district is also working with three local police departments, libraries, a local ministry, the YMCA, Sunbury Elks Lodge, Northumberland County Children and Youth, and Northumberland County Mental Health-Mental Retardation agencies.
Shikellamy’s goal is to provide more individualized direction and instruction for students, social and character development at the middle school level, and enrichment opportunities in the areas of parenting, educational and social skills.
The Selinsgrove Area School District offers an alternative education program.
“It is specifically designed to enable students to complete their education under a variety of circumstances,” Superintendent Frederick Johnson said. Sometimes students are referred to the program, or may just be facing personal, academic or disciplinary issues.
The district also works with organizations such as the CSIU and Northwestern Academy to provide for the needs of its at-risk students.
Lewisburg was the only Valley district in 2006-2007 that did not have any dropouts.
“That’s the goal we shoot for each year,” Superintendent Mark DiRocco said.
“We put a process in place about five or six years ago, where we require multiple steps before a student drops out,” he said. The student meets with guidance counselors, the parents meet with the principal, and the last step is the superintendent’s office, where all available options are explored.
“We do our best to try to make our educational program at the high school as relevant as possible for the kids, try to install in them the idea of setting goals, pursuing those goals, understanding the high school education is one of those foundations for achieving those goals,” DiRocco said.
What is most important is caring teachers, when instructors take a personal interest in children and encourage them to stay in school, and are a sounding board for them, DiRocco said.
When this happens, students typically want to stay and finish, he said.
Lewisburg’s success may also have to do with socioeconomic factors.
“We are very fortunate in Lewisburg that we have significant populations of students that come from advantaged homes,” he said.
However, not all do. Enrollment in the free lunch programs has increased every year over the past four years.
“No matter what socioeconomic status they come from, they should be able to learn on grade level, and their basic needs should be met at the school,” DiRocco said.
The district also works with outside agencies such as probation officers, Union County Children and Youth and the CSIU.
The state Department of Education echoes the solutions Valley schools have sought.
“We believe restructuring how high schools work for all students in the new economy is the answer to curbing dropout rates,” said Race, the education spokesman. “Research shows that, with student risk factors being equal, high schools with smaller enrollments, better interpersonal relationships among students and adults, supportive teachers, and a curriculum that is more focused and rigorous tend to have lower dropout rates. These benefits are seen especially among low-achieving, low-income students.”
The road back
Enrolled in the Valley’s Family Literacy Program, Bugg attends GED classes twice a week, and is allowed to bring Landon with her. The Shamokin woman works the other three weekdays to support herself and her son. She owns her own home.
Once she gets her GED, she plans to attend college, perhaps the Pennsylvania College of Technology, to be a dental hygienist.
Though she wishes she could have stayed in school because of the struggle it is for her now to work for a diploma, she doesn’t have any regrets.
“I wouldn’t change anything, because it makes you stronger in the end,” she said. “It’s good to say that you’ve done everything by yourself, and for yourself.”
n E-mail comments to tpursell@dailyitem.com.
