BUCYRUS—The board of education met for their regular monthly meeting on Thursday evening.
The topic of the potential mascot changed was touched upon at the meeting, with Superintendent Matt Chrispin announcing that after the National Congress of American Indians reached out in June, they will be sending Lycia Maddocks, the Vice President of External Affairs to speak at the board meeting on October 15.
“She will be joining us at that meeting and we will have a presentation, and I thought that we could use that October meeting to hear that side of the debate to educate ourselves on why this is an issue,” Chrispin said.
At the November meeting, Mr. Chrispin proposed a small group of individuals, including himself, to present to the board the history of the school’s mascot and a chronological presentation to the board. After that, the board will be open to community engagement and public participation on the matter.
As requested at the last meeting by board member John Kime, the graduation rates were discussed at the meeting.
“I just waned this on our agenda because we are not doing as well as we should, in my opinion. I just want to have a discussion as a board because I think that we have let this go for far too long—not improving our graduation rates. Getting our kids diplomas is why we are here. It’s been too long and I know that we haven’t done as well as we can—146 kids didn’t graduate within four years in the last ten years, and that is almost like taking two classes and saying, ‘no diploma, here you go. Have fun trying to figure out life.’ and that’s a pretty foundational step,” Kime said.
Since 2003-2004 school year, the highest four-year graduation rate Bucyrus had was 96.3 percent in 2006-2007, and the lowest was 81.2 percent during the 2013-2014 school year. The average four-year graduation rate since 2003-2004 is 88 percent.
During the 2018-2019 school year, Colonel Crawford had a 98.8 percent graduation rate, Buckeye Central had 98.1 percent, Crestline had 97.6 percent, Wynford had 97 percent, Galion had 90.4 percent, and Bucyrus came in last in the county with 85.3 percent, which is lower than the state average that year of 85.9 percent.
Four-year graduation rates from 2010-2019 were Colonel Crawford with 98 percent, Buckeye Central with 93 percent, Wynford with 92 percent, Galion with 90 percent, Crestline with 88 percent, and Bucyrus with 85 percent. The state average in that timeframe was 93 percent, and in those years, CC spent 9 years above the state average, BC spent 6, Wynford spent 4, Galion spent 2, Crestline spent 2, and Bucyrus never was at or above the state average.
As of this point in the school year, the potential graduation rate for this class of seniors is in the 90 percent rage, instead of the 80 percent range.