Mineral County educators always earn their summer vacation, of course, but especially so this year, as a recent report to the Mineral County Board of Education documented an all-time low dropout rate in the school system.
According to Mineral County Director of Attendance Linda Marsh, the drop-out rate for the 2007-08 school year was 1.06 percent. That equates to just 26 students out of total county high school enrollment of about 2,600.
But even that figure is too high for school officials, whose target remains a zero dropout rate.
Of the 26 dropouts, eight were court-ordered for truancy and all but one of those students have passed their GED high school equivalency. As for the other 18, Marsh is working to track them down this summer and get them into a GED program.
Superintendent of Schools Skip Hackworth rightly gave Marsh the lion's share of credit for the improved dropout rate, but he also recognized the role that teachers play in improving attendance and keeping young people engaged in the educational process.
“Linda and the classroom teachers work hard and make the kids want to come to school,” Hackworth said. “These goals would not have been accomplished without Linda’s leadership.”
Education is a team effort, involving students and teachers, parents and administrators, teacher assistants and other support staff. Certainly teachers and administrators play an integral role in keeping young people in school, but credit also goes to the parents at home and members of the community at large who stress the importance of education.
It's difficult enough to make one's way in the world these days, with the technological demands of the information age and the tightening job prospects of a cooling economy. The hurdles that await a young person who drops out of school are truly frightening.
We imagine that's a big part of what motivates Marsh and her colleagues in the school system. They genuinely care about their young charges, and don't want them facing the world that awaits a dropout.
To all those who work so hard to educate our young people and set them on a path to a bright future, we say thank-you, and enjoy your hard-earned summer of rest.