Sauer drops hard truths about dropout rate

WEBUTUCK — During the Board of Education (BOE) meeting on Monday, March 12, High School Principal Ken Sauer talked about the importance of offering many after-school options, as a tool to lower the dropout rate.Webutuck recently instituted an Intramurals Sports program and has been finding alternatives to sports for students who need additional support. Sauer stressed the importance of reaching out to those students who are showing signs of having trouble in school.“We’ve had good success with this personal approach and we’re looking to extend that next year,” he said.Sauer also explained that juniors will soon be going to Dutchess Community College to take their placement tests.“We did this in the fall with the seniors and this time around we are trying to get a jump on it by testing the kids at the end of their junior year. This way they go in to their senior year with that information and more options to explore,” he said.He also touched on the success of the recent career fair put on by the guidance office.“All the kids in the high school went through, we had it set up in the gym, and they got to talk to representatives from various fields including a photographer, a radio station worker and a representative from the health-care field,” he said.Students will also be taking part in a college fair in May.“We have almost 100 colleges scheduled to be on site, so that should be really great,” he said.Sauer then went deeper into what “dropout prevention” means and how it is being addressed.“It’s helping those kids that aren’t finding success in school. It’s about getting them to think about their options after high school, including things like the Armed Forces and vocational options,” he said.Sauer hopes to see an 80 percent graduation rate this year.The Board of Education asked Sauer to specify why the graduation rate fluctuates from year to year; estimates throughout this year have also fluctuated.“We won’t know the actual numbers until a few weeks before graduation actually takes place. We have our estimates, but there’s no way of being sure until the end of the semester,” he said.Sauer then spoke about the difficulties in working with parents.“Since I’ve been working here I’ve taken a lot of calls from parents. They want to know why you want to see their kid on a Saturday. I don’t have that information anymore than the guidance office does. I put it on the teachers, and that’s really where it needs to be,” he said.Sauer detailed what is expected of teachers.“I went so far as to say (to the teachers) that if they have kids that are on the failure list, you can’t not be in contact with parents and feel you’re convinced that your professional obligations have been met. We need to be making sure that they are contacting parents,” he said.Sauer also stressed that a certain number of parents don’t follow through on the meetings.“Parents claim they’ll be here and we do all the work, get all the paperwork ready, and then come Saturday morning they just don’t show,” he said.Sauer confirmed that while face-to-face interactions with the students and parents seem productive the intent often leaves the building when the student does.“Every student seems to appreciate the conversation, the face-to-face, one-on-one conversation. They seem receptive. Then the bell rings and those commitments seem to fade. It’s hard to make it stick once they go home,” he said.BOE member Judy Moran was curious about how calls to parents are followed through on.“Is there a way to monitor that calls are being made?” she asked.Sauer reassured the board that he had emailed the teachers on this issue.“I let them know that they need to be prepared to show me that they’re trying. I’m gonna ask for dates and times to prove the calls are being made,” Sauer replied.School board President Dale Culver weighed in.“I sincerely believe that the student who gets the intervention early in the year will be less likely to get frustrated and shut down,” he said.Culver then asked if there were any plans to start addressing these issues with students early in the year.Sauer informed the board that all of the students’ test scores from previous years are available for teachers as well as assessments based off of earlier testing.“Do our teachers know who is struggling? Yes. Do they necessarily do all that they could with that data? Probably not,” he said.Culver also expressed the importance of getting students the help in specific areas that they constantly show deficiencies in, as well as fostering areas they consistently do well in.Sauer responded that the test data and following up appropriately with the information provided will help in those areas.Culver also expressed the importance of simply talking to the students.“If you’re not knowing that they have a need then it doesn’t matter what resources we have. If you’re not asking, not contacting parents, then our target resources won’t help,” he said.After the meeting Sauer mentioned the difficulty in speaking on this topic.“I‘m not trying to beat up on my staff. This is a difficult issue and we need to follow up with the students who are doing poorly as well as the ones who are succeeding. The calls to parents have to be made and the follow through needs to be kept up on,” he said.The board thanked Sauer for his presentation with no further comments.