About 200 to be assigned to Morris

Published 7:20 am Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Dalton Public Schools high schoolers should find out within the next week or two whether they’ll be initially assigned to Morris Innovative High School or Dalton High School this fall.

Morris Principal Jennifer Phinney said administrators from both high schools, Dalton Middle School and the central office recently met to finalize a list of criteria to decide which students will initially go where. She estimated some 200 students will be assigned to Morris but given the option to transfer back to Dalton High before school starts if they want to. A letter to that effect is being drawn up and will likely go out in a few days, said school system spokeswoman Pat Holloway.

An administrative regulation that outlines the criteria that decide where students are initially placed shows low-performing students will be automatically assigned to Morris, the special purpose high school that opened in 2009 to raise the graduation rate and help students who were least likely to graduate on time catch up through work-at-your-own-pace programs and get a diploma. It has since expanded to what officials call a “school of choice” with some career pathways Dalton High doesn’t offer, an evening school, and a chance for students to learn in a smaller school setting.

Who goes where

For rising ninth-graders, students whose standardized test results for eighth grade reading and math are below state requirements or those absent for 15 or more days during the most recent school year could be sent to Morris.

Current high school students will be sent to Morris if they were placed into rather than promoted to the ninth grade, if they’re behind in one or more core credits needed for graduation, if their grade point average is less than 2.0 on core content, if they’re not on track to earn a diploma within four years, or if they were absent 15 or more days during the most recent school year.

Phinney said students won’t be sent to Morris for attendance problems alone, but attendance is one of the criteria used in deciding where to place them. Administrators also aren’t asking seniors — students with at least 17 credits — to go to Morris unless they want to.

Morris will be the “first point of enrollment” for students new to Dalton Public Schools, according to the administrative regulation, unless their transcript shows previous or current passing grades in Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate classes, or if they were previously in a career pathway offered only at Dalton High School. Phinney said someone at the central office will advise those students over the summer, but Morris educators will help them make an informed choice about the best school once staff return.

“New students transferring mid-semester from a school on a block schedule who have no advanced courses documented in their academic records will be enrolled at Morris Innovative High School,” the regulation states.

Families who receive letters about their kids being sent to Morris must schedule a meeting with administrators if they want to transfer them back to Dalton High, officials said.

“The purpose is really to engage them and help them understand this could be a really negative situation, that your child might not graduate at all,” Holloway said.

Planning for changes

In addition to the roughly 200 students who will be assigned first to Morris, another 90 to 100 signed up to go there on their own, Phinney said. She said all but about 10 of the 280 students who ended the 2011-2012 school year at Morris — not counting the 34 who graduated — expressed plans to stay there next year. If every student assigned to Morris decides to stay there, the school would grow to 530 students when it moves to the building on Fort Hill this August. Phinney said she knows some students will decide to go back to Dalton High, but based on past experiences, she doesn’t expect a mass exodus.

Morris’ student population is about 75 percent Hispanic. Federal laws prohibit school officials from asking about a student’s immigration status, and Phinney said she wants parents to understand they won’t ask questions about whether a family member is in the country undocumented. The letter to families will go out in both Spanish and English, she said, and Spanish-speaking staff will be available for those who want to meet about a transfer.

Star athletes aren’t immune from being assigned to Morris, at least initially. Phinney said some students who are struggling academically but excelling in sports at Dalton High could stay there and enroll in other kinds of remedial classes, as can any other student.

“There is a point of no return,” she said. “It’s great that you are a talented baseball player. That’s fantastic. It’s going to come to nothing if you don’t graduate from high school. That all has to be considered. Now, at the end of the day, if the parent says, ‘We understand. He’s going to Dalton High,’ that’s fine. But there needs to be some kind of game plan if that student is really getting behind.”

Phinney said she wishes administrators and parents could meet to talk about every high school student, but since they can’t, it’s important to schedule meetings for those who are most at risk of not graduating on time.

“I see this really too as an opportunity to talk about our school and talk about what we offer and what’s going on with the student, but let’s really talk about your child and where they are and what are some solutions to that,” she said.