DCPS looking to hire Student Success Advocate to help with graduation completion

October 20, 2021 | 12:10 am

Updated October 20, 2021 | 8:08 am

Matt Robbins

Daviess County Public Schools is looking to hire a Student Success Advocate. The position is dedicated to helping identify students in danger of not graduating on time, then working closely with those children and their parents to make sure needs are met and progress can be made.

DCPS Superintendent Matt Robbins said the potential need for the position really arose over the course of the summer.

“From attendance to frankly just being concerned about students in high school graduating, we just felt like we needed some more close attention to those students who were in high need and in possibly a situation where they would not graduate high school on time,” Robbins said. “We’re really looking for a unique person to meet some of the needs within a subpopulation of students and can really do an exceptional job of reaching those children, as well as connecting with the families in the home situation.”

Robbins said officials anticipate the advocate working with students in grades 7-12, with a primary focus on grades 9-12.

“This person will be monitoring students’ attendance, checking on them, seeing what needs they have, how they’re doing with their homework, are there services that we need to connect them to,” he said. “It’s kind of an accountability partner. They’re advocating on behalf of these students when sometimes they don’t have an advocate.”

The person hired will be working in concert with teachers and school leadership teams. 

“After the initial identification of who needs to be on the caseload, this individual will be communicating with teachers on how the student is progressing, what they are seeing as the student’s deficiencies in class, and how they can try to make sure they are targeting needs to be met,” he said.

In other business, DCPS officials have also found a way to make use of state funding that nearly had to go unused. DCPS Director of Finance Sara Harley said the district was allocated $315,000 from Senate Bill 1 a few years ago. She said there were six areas that the funds could be used for, specifically relating to security in the school buildings. 

“It was stuff like main entrances and locks,” she said. “We redid all the main entrances to make them secure before Senate Bill 1 passed, so we were not going to be able to take advantage of these funds.”

Harley said because so many schools statewide had done similar upgrades, much of the money made available through SB1 was unused. She said Robbins pushed hard and the state agreed to allow DCPS to use some of the funding for construction projects currently underway.

Harley said DCPS was already able to recoup $88,000 on “locks and different things” for the renovations to Apollo High School and construction of the new Daviess County Middle School, but that still left a big chunk of available funding on the table. 

She said they were able to segregate the cost of PA systems for both projects. Those costs totaled about $226,000, allowing DCPS to utilize the full allocation of $315,000.

The board is also considering a proposal to raise the price of cafeteria meals for adults. DCPS Director of Finance Sara Harley said the food service department is going through its 5-year review, and one of the things that came out was that adult meal prices were too low. 

For adults, breakfast will increase by 15 cents to $2.65 and lunch will increase by 55 cents to $4.05. The changes will go into effect Nov. 1 if approved.

All DCPS students are receiving meals for free this year and are unaffected.

The board also discussed the annual sale and purchase of buses. DCPS is expected to sell eight buses and purchase eight as replacements this year. They are projected to cost about $100,000 each, in line with recent years. 

Utilizing the state funding, increasing adult meal prices, and purchasing the buses are among several items that will be voted upon during Thursday’s regular board meeting at 4:30 p.m. at the DCPS Central Office.

October 20, 2021 | 12:10 am

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