Kelly Kenoyer
Sweet Home High School’s Class of 2020 graduation ceremonies were unique in many ways: Graduates finished their high school careers in small pods in separate ceremonies over two days, and they were treated to a vehicle processional through town instead of a march through Husky Stadium.
But the class was unique in another way: Sweet Home School District had record-breaking graduation rates last year, on top of what was had already been a 14% increase in graduations in 2019.
A full 88% of students graduated from Sweet Home High School, beating the state average of 82.6% of students.
SHHS Success Coordinator Kristin Adams said the graduation rates have gone up because of a few specific programs and efforts on the part of the school, including summer school, winter school, hiring student advocates, and the efforts of Reengagement Specialist Jim Kistner.
First, there are the summer and winter school programs, which have been conducted for the past two years.
“For students who failed a class but their grades were above 50%, they were invited to summer school or winter school, where they worked with teachers to get that grade up to 60%,” Adams explained.
The high school hired teachers to work with students to make up the last few assignments or complete the needed test to pass each class. That way, she said, the student doesn’t have to retake the entire class.
“Over the last two years we’ve had four opportunities for summer/winter school, and we’ve had 113 students participate. They gleaned 140 credits. So the winter/summer school has been phenomenal for getting those credits gained and getting them back on track.”
The high school also hired “student advocates” who work directly with struggling teens to help them get past the finish line. Those advocates, instructional aides “with a heart for kids,” as Adams put it, provide individualized care to students to help them graduate.
Adams said students typically fall into a few categories: those who will graduate no matter what, those who just need a little nudge to get their diplomas, and those who need significant intervention. The student advocates are for that middle category, and Adams said she tries to teach them to “take ownership” of their lives.
But for the students who face the most challenges, Adams said they have a secret weapon: Kistner.
“He goes above and beyond,” Adams said of the longtime high school counselor, who held off on retirement to take on his current role. “He’s calling them at night, he’s calling them in the morning, he’s texting them, ‘Why aren’t you at school? Where are you?’ He’s going to pick them up. And so then those kids start to see that there is somebody that hasn’t written them off.”
Kistner said he works with about 70 students each year, around 20 to 30 of whom are seniors. The seniors get the bulk of his attention, with three to five contacts per week, compared to one to three contacts for the younger kids.
For Kistner, working with these students is a matter of getting buy-in. They need to set their own goals if they’re going to be successful – he can’t unilaterally tell them what to do and expect it to happen.
“You have to break it down into little chunks and show them some successes,” he said. Some students feel worried about being judged, he added, so he tries to show them “there isn’t any judgment, and you can work with them just as who they are.”
Demonstrating that kind of care and attention makes a big difference, he said.
“They’re going to pay attention and they’re going to trust you a little bit. But that trust comes in bits and pieces.”
Sweet Home has a particularly big hill to climb, compared to other districts. Twenty-one percent of Sweet Home students live in poverty, and a large number are even dealing with homelessness – there are more than 1,000 homeless students in Linn County.
Poverty and housing trouble can make it hard for a student to be engaged in education, Kistner said.
“When you have eight or 10 people living in a two-bedroom house, and this isn’t judgmental at all, but that situation makes it really, really difficult for them to be able to still be prepared to be a good student in school,” he said.
Adams said Kistner even went so far as to arrange transportation for one homeless student on a near-daily basis. That student moved around the entire area, even to Eugene for a short while, but Kistner still managed to get him through to graduation, diploma in hand, at 18 years old.
“You have to try to wipe the slate clean for those kids, and let them know that we’re just here to help you,” Kistner said. “Let’s do everything we can to give them a fresh start.”
Adams said Kistner will be hard to replace when he retires at the end of the year, as he seems to be uniquely good at connecting with struggling students. She also expects to see a dip in graduation rates this coming spring, thanks to COVID. Because of the shutdowns caused by the virus, summer and winter school aren’t on the table.
“We need to prepare ourselves that this year’s numbers aren’t going to be there. COVID set us back so far,” Adams said. A lot of seniors got off track because of COVID, and the district can’t force them to stay in school after they turn 18.
Kistner agrees that COVID has been challenging – it’s just a lot harder to check up on kids when he can’t poke his head into a classroom to make sure they’re there. Still, he’s hopeful, he said
“It’s just that connection. We have to find different ways of staying connected with that student. We have to get our foot in the door and have that communication, whether through texting or phone calls or email.”
Kistner said his main goal is to help students and families avoid getting discouraged.
“It is just vital, breaking it down into little chunks. So often the students will be overwhelmed with the big picture, of what they need to do to be able to finish on time.
“In our job, a lot of times it’s just showing them, ‘yes, you can do this, but let’s break it down into little chunks, schedule it, organize it, plan it,’ and that’s a really valuable skill for them.”