By By MaryClaire Foster
As a follow up to a March Governor’s Summit on high school dropout prevention, approximately 1,200 school personnel and community leaders across the state met this week to discuss prevention ideas.
More than 35 school personnel and community leaders met at the Escambia County School Board’s Atmore office Tuesday to participate in a videoconference led by Robert Balfanz, PH.D. of the Everyone Graduates Center at John Hopkins University.
Donna Revel, Escambia County attendance, at-risk and community education coordinator, organized the local aspect of the conference and said she saw it as a great success.
Revel said that while Escambia County’s dropout rate is one of the lowest in the state, at less than 20 percent for the 2008 graduating class, it’s not good enough until it is non-existent.
Revel said that during the conference the group identified the key factors for dropouts in the county and said that unexpected life events was the biggest factor in dropouts. She listed things such as an unplanned pregnancy, loss of a caregiver and incarceration as the life event factors.
Atmore Area Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Sheryl Vickery said she saw the conference as important to the community.
Revel said she is confident in Escambia County’s ability to continue improving its dropout statistics and attributes it to the county’s unified front on preventing it.
Revel said that as a result of the meeting, there are even more efforts to work on prevention.