MANATEE — On the strength of a passionate speech by school board member Barbara Harvey, the board Monday unanimously approved the immediate hiring of graduation coaches for Bayshore and Palmetto high schools.
Together, including salaries and benefits, the two positions will pay more than $126,000. The American Recovery Reinvestment Act is footing the bill at no cost to the district. But the program lasts only two years and will have to be paid locally after that, school district officials said.
The coaches will be responsible for raising the graduation rates of the two “D” schools, which according to statistics provided by board member Robert Gause, were both around 76 percent last year.
By comparison, Lakewood Ranch, Manatee and Braden River high schools all had 82 percent graduation rates last year, Gause reported.
The high school with the worst graduation rate — Southeast at 67 percent — was deemed needy of a coach, but the money wasn’t available for a third coach, Superintendent Tim McGonegal said.
The state grades Southeast higher than Palmetto or Bayshore because its International Baccalaureate program pulls its scores up, which the other two schools don’t have, McGonegal added.
But the fate of the two coaches was very much in doubt and the issue looked like it would be tabled until Harvey stepped in and pushed for the hiring.
Gause wanted some assurance that the coaches would bring Palmetto and Bayshore up to 82 percent or, short of that, the coaches would at least commit to a graduation rate for which they could be held accountable.
Harvey told a story about a young girl, a senior at Palmetto High, who has a 1.9 grade point average, which is just short of failing.
“Her mother recently let her get a job after school,” Harvey said. “What we needed in this situation is a coach who would say, ‘Baby, you don’t need to be working any job after school. You need to be at home studying.”
Harvey then turned to her fellow board members.
“You are talking about graduation rates so they can get jobs, I am talking about prison,” Harvey said. “Am I an advocate of a coach. Yes, I am very much an advocate of a coach.”
After Harvey’s speech, Guase said he was willing to make a motion approving the positions immediately if staff presented some goal projections by mid-January.
Harvey exuberantly seconded the motion.
In other action:
n Sienna Bonner’s essay, “Fresh from Manatee Farms: The Story of Local Growers” won the essay contest for Farm City Week. Sienna, 16, is a junior from Southeast High.
n Justin Stephens from Palmetto High, Yarelis Gonzales from Lincoln Middle and Marylu Leyva from Palmetto told board members how AVID, a fourth through 12-grade program to prepare good students who need help preparing for college, has changed their lives.
The board was thrilled with the program.
“This is a bright ray of hope,” Pfeilsticker said.
n Employee Melissa R. Graves was awarded a future administrative hearing to decide if she should be suspended without pay for three days. A suspension of Laurel Davis pending the outcome of a hearing was withdrawn from the agenda.
Richard Dymond, Herald reporter, can be reached at 748-0411, ext. 6686
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