Aug. 16, 2006 Dropout project grows for 3rd year By CYNTHIA LEONOR GARZA The Houston Independent School District needs at least 2,000 volunteers for its third annual Reach Out to Dropouts Day Walk — an effort where educators and community members sweep through city neighborhoods to find and convince dropouts to give school another shot. This year's walk will happen on the morning of Aug. 26.Hundreds of volunteers fanned out across the city last year, and more are expected this year as HISD's campaign adds four more high schools — Rea- gan, Sterling, Wheatley and Yates — for a total of 20.In addition, Aldine ISD will hold its first walk this year for its five high schools."We're very new to this so it's a good year for us to learn the strengths of the program and the benefits," said Aldine Assistant Superintendent Ben Wilson.HISD volunteers are encouraged to attend a training course, the second and final of which is at 6 p.m. today, at the Board of Trustees Auditorium, 4400 W. 18th. Previous years' volunteers do not have to attend the training to participate. Online training availableNan Powers Varoga, director of public affairs at Houston A+ Challenge, said anyone who is not able to attend the class can watch an online training video."Then you're better prepared to go and walk the neighborhoods with district employees. You know what to expect and know how to fill out the paperwork, because sometimes people aren't home so we leave door hangers and cards on how to contact the district and how to come back," Varoga said.Aldine hopes to have at least 100 volunteers per high school, including employees and business partners, Wilson said. Training will take place on the morning of the walk, from 8 to 9 a.m. at the various high schools.Last year, through this and other efforts, HISD recovered 1,300 dropouts. More than 200 of them graduated from high school in May.HISD's dropout prevention specialists help students catch up and get back on the track toward graduation.Students are also referred to community resources that can address problems that led the students to drop out in the first place. Other districts interestedWhile individual neighborhood schools have had dropout recruitment efforts for years, "we have never heard of another school district that does a citywide effort like this," Varoga said.Houston's success in part has been fueled by the widespread effort of not just school, but city leaders including Mayor Bill White.Other cities and school districts have inquired about the program, or visited HISD to see its dropout recovery efforts.This year several individuals from Greenville, S.C., who are involved in the Graduate Greenville citywide initiative, will participate in Houston's walk to see how it works."One of our goals through Graduate Greenville is to look at how the community connects with kids who have left the school system and to try and figure out strategies to keep them in school, and if they've left how to get them back in school," said Grier Mullins, executive director for Greenville's Alliance for Quality Education. The Greenville County Schools has 14 regular high schools and about 66,000 students, Mullins said."We have put a lot of resources in our state and in our community into early childhood education," Mullins said. "While we are convinced that you really get your bang for your buck" investing in early childhood education, "we realized on the other (graduation) end we were still losing too many kids."I'm very intrigued with the Houston project. We have a growing number of students who speak other languages here," Mullins said.
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