Tacoma School District’s Dec. 6 study session didn’t yield as much progress as the agenda planned, but did give a much needed voice to the heart of the district: principals, teachers, school staff and students.

Who better to give insight on struggles at the high schools than a principal who works in one every day?

Who better to describe a population of struggling East Side families and children than someone who works with them constantly?

And who knows the reason for Tacoma School’s dropout crises better than a student who dropped out-from nearly every school in the district.

“Kids don’t drop out because they don’t want to do anything with their lives,” said Saundra Fankell, a 19-year-old high school dropout who considers herself a highly capable student and talented violinist.

Yet in three years she dropped in and out of four Tacoma schools and only earned five credits before she left school altogether.

She left her first school, Lincoln, because she moved out of the area. She left her second school, Wilson, because she wasn’t being challenged and because the teachers “didn’t care” if she showed up or not. She transferred to Oakland Alternative school and left because of the outdated text and distracting classmates. She then went to Foss and then shortly after to Tacoma School of the Arts before resorting to Marysville Online Academy.  

Now, Fankell works nights as a waitress at Johnny’s at Fife restaurant. She has her General Educational Development (GED) certificate, and said she scored in the top one-percentile. Fankell plans on starting at Tacoma Community College this spring.

Looking back, she said she does regret not staying in school, but knows that at the time it was what she had to do.  

“I could drop out, get a job and move on with my life, or I could stick with something I’m not interested in,” she said.

She chose to “move on,” just like many students do, because she needed to make some money, as her parents needed financial support.

And while many students work nights to get by financially, late nights on the job make it difficult to get to class by 7 a.m.

Principal at Mount Tahoma High School Greg Eisnaugle said lack of attendance, for whatever reason, especially in the first quarter of school, has a direct link with an eventual dropout.

He stated that if a student is absent five to nine times within their first high school semester, they have a 63 percent chance of graduating.

If they are absent 10-14 times within that time period it goes down to 41 percent.

Patrick Cummings, district director of research and evaluation, read off more statistics relating to graduation rates in Tacoma.

He said that 68 percent of students in the 2005-06 school year graduated on time, which is two percentage points less than the state figure.

He also compared rates of Tacoma’s individual high schools. He said SOTA, a school that Fankell felt was the most supportive, came out on top.

According to Cummings, SOTA students have a graduation rate of 94 percent compared to Stadium at 79, Wilson at 76, Mt. Tahoma at 74, Lincoln at 69 and Foss at 67.

Fankell believes that SOTA instructors’ constant communication with one another as well as with students is what makes them more successful and holds students accountable for what’s going on.

But aside from teacher interaction, home life and background play a bigger role in student’s ability to focus and stay in school.

Delores Beason, principal at Gault Middle School, said for her community of East Side students, building relationships with pupils and their parents is key.

She and McIlvaigh assistant principal Michael Knuckles and longtime McIlvaigh para-educator Linda Milles see students with little to no home support, and bigger issues like parental drug-use, homelessness and abuse, that can put attendance and education on the back burner.

School board member Debbie Winskill said “it’s been a long time” since the board has heard testimony like this. “It was good to hear from the people who are in the trenches,” she said. “They didn’t tell me anything I didn’t already know, but for all of us [the board] to hear these problems in a group setting is important.”

The school board is scheduled to continue the agenda from the Dec. 6 study session on Student Achievement from 4-6 p.m. Dec. 13.

A regular board meeting will follow the study session starting at 6 p.m.

Dates for the study sessions on leadership and the search for a new Superintendent, and Collective Bargaining is still to be determined.

For information on study sessions visit www.tacoma.k12.wa.us/schoolboard/study_sessions.asp.