Clarke County Dropout Forum

On Thursday, October 27, citizens from around Clarke County gathered together for a community forum using Dropouts: What Should We Do? to guide their deliberation. The forum was organized by Mary-Claire Wilson and the Clarke County Promise Alliance, and was held at the beautiful Thomasville Civic Center. Forum participants ranged from teachers and principals, to county commissioners and the Clarke County District Judge.

After grabbing some lunch, forum participants were welcomed by Thomasville Mayor Sheldon Day and introduced to the Mathews Center by Mrs. Mary-Claire Wilson. Chris McCauley, Executive Director of the Mathews Center, then moderated a brief discussion through the three approaches.

Forum participants overall felt that approach one, “Emphasize Achievement,” works well for students with parental support, but that it pushes others to dropout who have little to no support at home. The group felt that setting individualized achievement standards would prove more effective in keeping students in school. Others related that individualizing achievement is difficult when the schools have to spend so much energy meeting federal and state course of study requirements and benchmarks.

Approach two, “Emphasize Preventative and Corrective School Programs,” caused the group to think through the home situations of students and how it impacts their performance in school. Once again, the participants stressed the need to connect with students on an individual level. The need for career tech education proved another major theme throughout the discussion of approach two. One gentleman stated that an emphasis on workforce preparation ought to be a major objective of secondary schools.

Segueing right into approach three, “Emphasize Community Responsibility,” one lady related that so many initiatives, programs, and ideas are “departmentalized,” but that it is important for all groups to “work together” to solve the dropout issue.  Exposing students to job opportunities, the Hippy program, and mentoring programs constituted the major ways that Clarke County can encourage its students to graduate, according to forum attendants.

After the abbreviated forum experience, Judge Morgan outlined to the group the programs that he has instituted to help the juvenile offenders in Clarke County. The STOP program and Clarke County Male Mentoring Initiative are just two of the methods the District Court has inaugurated.

After the judge’s encouraging comments, the group separated into break-out sessions with members from their respective communities to make commitments to act publicly. The citizens of Thomasville, Grove Hill, Jackson, and Coffeeville talked for over an hour with their fellow community members about what could be done with the resources available to them to help their young people complete school. They also addressed the five promises outlined by America’s Promise Alliance. The promises focus on the following areas: caring adults, safe places, a healthy start, effective education, and opportunities to help others. By the end of the productive hybrid forum, the judges mentoring program had new volunteers and each community had plans to put their ideas into practice.

We look forward to hearing more about the actions that will follow the commitments made during the breakout session!

- Cristin Foster (DMC Assistant Program Director)