The Watauga County Schools system has been awarded a Dropout Prevention Grant of $150,000 by the North Carolina General Assembly’s Committee on Dropout Prevention.

The dropout prevention program is designed to promote and support innovative approaches to increasing high school graduation rates.

Watauga Schools Superintendent Dr. Marty Hemric said, “We are very fortunate to have representatives and senators in our state Legislature who are committed to funding dropout prevention efforts that will better meet the diverse needs of students. We are exceptionally grateful to the leadership provided by our General Assembly Rep. Cullie Tarleton and Sen. Steve Goss and for the priority they place on supporting education with grant programs such as this.”

Hemric also praised the work of Watauga County school administrators in securing the grant.

“I commend the creativity and scholarship of the leadership at Watauga High School and our director of student services, Mr. Marshall Gasperson, for designing the grant to specifically address the needs discovered during a dropout study completed in 2007-08. It is exciting to have these new resources to implement additional academic and personal assistance for many of our students,” Hemric said.

The grant will provide additional personal support, academic resources, recovery credit opportunities, technology and flexible scheduling opportunities to help students graduate. These additional supports will be combined into an integrated and comprehensive intervention program at the high school.

The major focus of the program will be to support students who need assistance with making up missed coursework and/or who are experiencing extra challenges in their personal life that put them at increased risk of dropping out.

Specific procedures will be implemented to identify and assist at-risk students with issues related to attendance, the presence of untreated physical or emotional health concerns, or a lack of family resources.
The North Carolina General Assembly’s Committee on Dropout

Prevention was created by the General Assembly two years ago to help improve high school graduation rates in North Carolina.

The committee awarded grants totaling $5.2 million to 42 groups in 30 counties for 2008-09. The committee awarded 37 grants in its first year of operation in 2007-08.

The statewide graduation rate for North Carolina’s public schools was 69.9 percent in 2007-08. The graduation rate for Watauga High School was 68.5 percent.