Sampson County Schools officials say they are continuing to make a concerted effort to battle dropout rates throughout the school system, and they point to a myriad of plans they are moving forward with to help in their quest.

Although the number of dropouts in the county was down by one during the 2008-09 school year (151), officials in the school system recently received two Dropout Prevention grants — one from the Princeton Center for Leadership, valued at around $165,000; the other from Fayetteville State University, valued at $170,000.

Col. Tommy Macon, director of secondary education for Sampson County Schools, made the announcement to the Board of Education at a recent board meeting.

Macon said the grants target specific needs to help combat the number of students opting to drop out of school.

“The Princeton Center for Leadership grant will target students in two districts — Lakewood and Union,” he said. “The grant will help execute leadership in Lakewood High School, Roseboro/Salemburg Middle School, Union High and Union Middle School.”

Macon said the funding will help train students under a supervised transitional program that will help build peer leaders for upcoming eighth and ninth graders.

“By the end of spring 2011, 80 percent of the ninth graders cannot be absent for more than 12 days,” Macon explained. “Ninety percent have to be enrolled in the program and will have to be promoted to the tenth grade; and 90 percent of the ninth graders will have to be still enrolled at a school so we can continue the grant.”

During the 2008-09 school year Union High School had 42 dropouts; Lakewood High had 48, the most in the county.

Macon said the Fayetteville State University grant, entitled the FAME Intervention Program, will be utilized at Union High only.

“This grant will involve 50 randomly selected freshmen who may have the potential to drop out, or may have previously dropped out of school. The grant will allow us to offer career guidance for the selected students to develop a 10-year plan and a four-year achievement plan.”

The grant stipulates that by the end of 2011, 80 percent of the selected students must receive a passing grade in English 1; 100 percent of the students involved must have developed a ‘long-range’ plan; and 80 percent of the students must show a 50 percent improvement in their self-esteem.

“I know that will be hard to measure,” admitted Macon about the self-esteem portion of the grant, “but we will have things to work it out as we go along. We are not going to be able to solve all of the problems with these grants, but we do feel that we are making the right decisions about where we are going with helping improve the dropout rates. These grants will help in that endeavor.”

Board chairwoman Doris Warren agreed with Macon about the grant opportunities for the students. “Anything that makes us feel better about ourselves will make us do better in the long run,” she said.

Board member Telfair Simpson noted that getting parents involved with their children’s education would also be beneficial.

“That is absolutely true,” Macon said. “Getting that parental support is really important. They need to see that someone really cares about what they are doing in the classroom.”

After more discussion, board member Mary Brown suggested that seeking a role model in the classroom could be another way of helping reduce the dropout rate. “This is not a put down, but we should also identify the perfect teacher in Algebra and English,” she said. “I am not saying that it is not being done now, I am just saying someone who will give those students the positive reinforcements that they need could help.”

Macon said meetings will begin with educators to determine exactly how the programs will be instituted early next year. The grant money will be used during the first semester of the 2010-11 school year.

To reach Doug Clark call 910-592-8137 ext. 123 or send e-mail to sisports@myclintonnc.com.