By SARAH CAMPBELL
Leader staff writer
Progress has been made at Jacksonville High School and that will continue with support from everyone, Principal Henry Anderson said Thursday at the school’s second community meeting of the year.
He said only 15 of 166 seniors didn’t earn a diploma this year from JHS, which has been criticized for having a graduation rate of a little more than 50 percent. One of the 15 students, Anderson said, was only half a credit away.
The principal said the school was working with that student. Anderson predicted that the student would earn his diploma by the end of this week.
Anderson said the school saw a 9 percent rise in Benchmark test scores. The official scores will be released any day.
As a school-improvement grant school, Jacksonville had the highest composite score in literacy of all the schools in Arkansas that received that grant, the principal said.
Jacksonville was awarded a $2 million federal school-improvement grant that will be used to promote academic achievement through more technology and professional development for teachers because it ranked in the bottom 5 percent in the state, along with Dollarway, Helena-West Helena and Marvell, which also received similar grants.
The grant could be renewed for two additional years if the school uses the money appropriately and has positive results. The school would receive the same amount for the second year and $1.7 million for the third year.
Anderson said, “We are wireless all over the building now. I can tell you that kids yesterday, and some today, with the growth and goals activity we gave for enrichment have e-mailed me my next marching orders about cafeteria food, bathrooms and things that they want to happen, like an open campus. We have student voices taking place.”
As for discipline, Anderson said preliminary data shows the amount of referrals issued decreased by 200 compared to last year.
The principal touted the professional development that is ongoing with the school’s teaching staff.
Anderson said seven 10th-graders, according to their PLAN test results, could receive multiple scholarships by the time they are seniors. PLAN is a test that predicts how well a student could do when they take the ACT exam. ACT scores are often taken into consideration when awarding merit-based financial aid to attend college.
He said the school nurse has been recording data about pregnant students and discussions about establishing a clinic or daycare are taking place now with the Pulaski County Special School District administrators and the state Education Department.
The school will offer concurrent college credit courses next year, Anderson said. The school has also received preliminary approval to spend $75,000 of the school improvement grant on reimbursing teachers’ for their tuition if they want to go back to school for another certification or degree, he said.
“There are so many things taking place. So sometimes you just go ‘wow,’” the principal said. “There’s still more to do. Today, we are going to celebrate, analyze, look at, talk about some things and get ready for marching orders for 2012-13 and you’re going to be part of that process.”
Later, Anderson struggled to hold back tears as he shared why he is so dedicated to helping students.
“We cannot let them fail. This is not just a job for me. This is a passion because at one point in time I was a child that should have not made it. To be able to lead a school where you have kids that looked like you when you were struggling and to help them, to have the resources to help them make a difference. That’s why you stay up day and night looking at stuff and that’s why you get into it with teachers.”
He continued, “That’s why you have all these things going on because you used to be them. You used to be the one that got dogged out. You were a gifted kid in third grade and never got into talented and gifted classes until 10th grade and then graduated with honors from college. “When you had that privilege of somebody saying ‘I’m going to help you make it, and they pull you along the way, you don’t forget that. And you help others to do that. “That is why I’m so hard on my teachers and why I’m always challenging you because our kids deserve it. They have to have it because life is not an easy thing to handle, especially if you’re not prepared.”
Anderson said he bought a house in Jacksonville and plans to stay. He is the fifth principal in two years.
He also said the school’s theme for next year is “Striving for Excellence.”
This year’s theme was “It is what it is.”
The first community meeting in August drew a much larger crowd, but the smaller audience had no trouble identifying the school’s strengths, weaknesses, what is threatening its progress and how the problems could be addressed.
Strengths were:
• Anderson;
• The new media center, which was revamped with money from the district’s building fund;
• Increased technology/wireless (Internet);
• Increased accountability;
• Good literacy End-of-Course exam scores;
• Counseling staff;
• Teamwork between teachers and students;
• More parent involvement;
• New parent liaison Jada Ellis;
• Improved discipline;
• Improved communication;
• And improved graduation rate/credit recovery (a program that allows student to earn, on the weekends, any credits they are lacking).
Weaknesses were:
• Dilapidated facilities;
• Some teaching staff;
• Academics;
• Lack of food choices in the cafeteria;
• Communication between the staff and administrators;
• Communication between staff, parents and students;
• Bullying;
• Student and teacher attitudes;
• Lack of tutoring;
• Commitment of teachers and students;
• Honesty/relationships between students and teachers;
• Too many rules;
• Amount of time between classes;
• Poor parent involvement;
• Lack of electives;
• Lack of technology know-how;
• and funding.
Those in attendance offered some suggestions for the next steps Jacksonville should take to accomplish some of the goals. Some of those were:
• Use Read 180, a comprehensive system of curriculum, instruction, assessment and professional development aimed at helping students whose reading achievement is below the proficient level;
• Add vocabulary back into the enrichment period;
• Give the student council more authority to make things happen on campus;
• Add more sports or intramural sports;
• Hire bilingual counselors;
• Request an audit;
• Conduct a learning styles inventory;
• Hire bilingual teachers;
• Get tutoring program for English as a Second Language students;
• And establish a student court that has a say in punishment for students who receive disciplinary referrals.
Those at the meeting said negative attitudes, declining enrollment, central office, lack of participation, lack of time, lack of funds, conflicting goals, the ability to carry out plans and ignorance threaten the progress of JHS.
But the school improvement grant, concurrent credit program, credit recovery program, mentors, community support, the ninth-grade academy, as well as several grants that could help the school continue to move forward.
The ninth grade academy involves making the transition to high school easier by having those students take five out of their seven classes in the same hallway, Anderson said. That way, ninth-graders build a sense of community and their teachers have the same planning period. Parents can then speak with most of their students’ teachers at one time.
Another feature of the academy program is a spring symposium that would help the ninth-graders to develop critical thinking by listening to speakers and having discussions on a particular topic.
SWAG helps fund tutoring, field trips to colleges and other programs that encourage academic growth, Anderson said.
School officials announced Tuesday that it received SWAG funding from the Arkansas Arts Council to host a summer arts clinic for students interested in theatre arts and drama or increasing their reading comprehension skills.
The clinic will be held in the school’s auditorium from 8 a.m.-noon July 9 through Aug. 2. It will end with a community performance on Aug. 2. Applications can be picked up at the office and the deadline is June 15.
ACSIP is a federal plan for school improvement that earns the school funding based on the number of students who sign up for free or reduced lunch, the principal said.
The AIMS grant provides funding to train advanced placement and pre-AP teachers. Students who take those classes can earn college credit with their scores on AP exams.
Individuals who attended the meeting Thursday also received a copy of the school’s core beliefs, vision statement and mission statement. They were told to look for words that were confusing or vocabulary that some people may not understand.
Some of those words were stakeholders, character, rigorous and high-yield.
The principal’s cabinet, a group of students that works with Anderson on policies, will revise the document based on the feedback gathered at the meeting.
