By Andrew Walsh
awalsh@wbcowqel.com
The “huge takeaway,” according to presenter Andrea Presler, from BC’s fifth community meeting was the need to spread information.
The topic for the night dealt with the district’s ability to prepare its students for the next phases of life. When discussing high school and the next phase of life, the mind instantly jumps to college and other forms of higher education. That is certainly one of the main goals. It was brought up at the meeting, however, that this should not be the only focus. There are avenues outside of the university that kids need to be prepared for as well, such as vocational training and preparing to enter directly into the workforce.
New guidance counselor Juliet Thomas gave the main presentation, breaking down the district’s performance in various post-secondary areas. Parents in attendance expressed a majority opinion that they do not feel they have complete information in how to prepare their kids for the next step. She broke down performances of Buckeye Graduates in how many went to college, how many finished in four years, five years, how many never finished at all etc.
She also gave a breakdown of students’ performances in college prep tests, such as the ACT, PLAN, and EXPLORE tests. In a recent study of ACT scores, 29 percent of Buckeye’s test takers met all the ACT benchmarks. That was compared to a state average of 31 percent and a national average of 26 percent.
Just as technology has completely changed the game in so many sectors of life, the same is true in the education world. There are now many options for kids, in a district as small as Buckeye Central, to gain vast amounts of college credits before leaving high school. Students have the capability to take college courses without ever leaving BC’s campus. They have the ability to take dual enrollment courses that will garner high school and college credits. These programs present opportunities for incredible head starts for kids who will be entering the college ranks.
Marianne Williamson recalled how her son, a former student at Buckeye Central, was able to complete a four-year engineering degree only two years after graduating from Buckeye Central, thanks to all the collegiate coursework he was able to get out of the way while still in high school.
This presents very real monetary savings in an age when college costs seem to be ever on the rise. The only way for the parents to take advantage of these benefits on offer is to know about them, and the only way to know about them is to improve communication from the district to the parents and from the parents to the district.
There is one meeting remaining, but Superintendent Tara Meyerink is already looking forward to presenting the findings from these sessions to the Board. The information from these meetings is set to be used for the purposes of long term planning, an area she stated the district was lacking in on her arrival.
There will be the necessary self-criticism to help move the district forward, but part of this process will be, “confirming what we do well,” Meyerink said. The goal is to recapture everything that has been discussed, review it, and then present it to the board.
The final meeting will be at 7 p.m., Sept. 25, at the Chatfield Firehouse.