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Every Friday we dismiss school at 2:15 and conduct a staff meeting. All staff
members submit topics to be discussed at this meeting. Included in the agenda
circulated to each staff members prior to the meeting is a list of each student currently
enrolled. If the teacher has a concern about this student, they put their initial
next to the student's name. Any student with three or more initials beside their
name is discussed in depth. This student evaluation portion of our meeting takes the
bulk of our meeting time. We discuss ways to motivate a certain student, or reasons
why their work production or attendance may be off that week. We discuss personal
problems that the student may be experiencing and ways to help with those. That
student is then assigned a teacher or staff member for the next week to be their
advisor. This gives the student a one-on-one mentor for that week or longer, if
needed. This builds a teacher/student relationship that often lasts throughout the
student's time with us. Every at-risk student (which is the heart of our clientele)
receives this type of attention. We have an enrollment of 95 students, with 7 adults
participating in this program. The staff are involved in this over and above their
normal classroom workload. The result of this endeavor is a low dropout rate and one
of the highest graduation rates among continuation schools.
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