This High School Is Not for Me

[avoiding high school]

Dear Nancy and Sid,

I can’t stand this high school so I’m always skipping school or class, failing subjects, getting into trouble, or getting bullied by other kids.  Don’t tell anyone I asked, but what else can I do?  -- Anthony

Dear Nancy and Sid,

How can we get this kid to go to school? Nothing seems to work. – We Care

Dear Nancy and Sid,

I can’t get up to go to school in the morning. Maybe I should go to night school or just quit. -- Charlie

Dear Nancy and Sid,

Unless these freshmen can overcome their poor attendance in middle school they’re probably going to have a tough time in high school. The truancy road leads to academic failure and dropping out. What kind of help can you provide?  -- Worried Parents and Teachers

Dear Anthony, Charlie, “We Care,” and “Worried Parents and Teachers”

There are plenty of reasons kids don’t feel they want to go to school. You need to find the program that’s going to work for you or the kids you’re worried about. Some of the programs you can consider include:

  YABC: Staten Island Young Adult Borough Center
 Olympus Academy
 GPS at Port Richmond High School 
Truancy prevention planning at the CDRC: Community Dispute Resolution Center

Read about each of these programs, then give our staff a call at 718-815-4557.

New initiative at Port Richmond H.S. is keeping at-risk students on track

Student Jasmine Basabe, right, accepts
a perfect attendance award from Jen Quirk,
of NYCID's Graduate, Prepare, Succeed program.
(Photo courtesy of Port Richmond H.S.)

PORT RICHMOND - Keeping young people on track in school, focused on the goal of graduating with a high-school diploma, is the aim of a new program at Port Richmond High School.

Sponsored by New York Center for Interpersonal Development (NYCID) and United Way of New York City, the program has two components: Graduate, Prepare, Succeed (GPS) supports students during the school day, while Advantage offers after-school support.

"Both these programs are focused on giving the most at-risk students the resources and attention necessary to help them stay focused on their high school goals and ultimately their future path in life," said NYCID executive director Dominick Brancato.

The GPS average student attendance rate this year is about 90 percent; last year it was about 80 percent.

To read more, check out the article in today's Staten Island Advance: New initiative at Port Richmond High School is working and keeping at-risk students from slacking | SILive.com

GPS students at Port Richmond H.S. help deliver turkeys for Thanksgiving

Not every family can afford a Thanksgiving with all the fixings, but this year the 110 members of New York Center for Interpersonal Development's Graduate, Prepare, Succeed (GPS) program at Port Richmond H.S. made sure each student had a delicious meal to share with their family.

Students packaged turkeys and all the fixings (which were were generously donated by North Shore Rotary Club, ShopRite of Staten Island and UFCW Local 1500) and assisted NYCID staff in making deliveries to the homes of their fellow classmates.

This experience was most rewarding and surprising to both staff and students as we witnessed and experienced the compassion, cohesion and community among GPS members. In addition, this opportunity enlightened and educated students about the need within their community.

Service learning promotes pride, esteem and worth to all individuals involved.  There are three key benefits to service learning:

1. It builds positive school community
2. It teaches students to respect themselves and others more, and 
3. It changes the misperceptions students may have for their peers. 

Family involvement is essential for our program to thrive and to affect change in our students’ lives. Adolescence is a pivotal time when identity and individuality is molded by influence. We believe this process enriched and positively influenced both the families who were thankful in receiving, and the students who were more than willing to give of themselves.

(Read more about the GPS and Advantage After-School programs at Port Richmond H.S. here.)

Graduate, Prepare, Succeed (GPS) Program at Port Richmond H.S.

Helping Our Students Cross the Finish Line

A little more than 39% of New York City students who enter ninth grade each fall fail to graduate with their peers four years later.  Ninth grade serves as a key hurdle for many students who begin their freshman year only to find that their academic skills are insufficient for high school-level work.  This difficult transition, combined with lack of engagement, takes a terrible toll.

Last year, through a collaboration with United Way of NYC, we implemented Graduate, Prepare, Succeed (GPS) at Port Richmond H.S. - a robust and targeted dropout prevention program to ensure that young people achieve academic success.

Why join?

• The GPS Program helps students adjust to high school
• Students are rewarded for having good grades and good attendance
• Our FREE incentives [such as movie tickets, school supplies, bagel breakfasts, trips and more!] will help students stay motivated throughout their high school career

For more information, call (718) 815-8124 or visit our new blog.

How Are We Going to Keep These Kids in School?

James started high school this fall. Will he graduate or dropout? Unless we find an effective way to intervene, the odds are, he’ll drift away from school missing increasingly more days, falling further behind until passing his courses seems impossible, so he quits. 

How do we know? Easy. James missed more than 25 days of school last year and that fact is a good predictor that he’ll drop out. James is one of 350 entering freshmen at Port Richmond High School who missed between 25 and 75 days of school last year who are at risk for dropping out. But, NYCID will intervene.  

In August, NYCID invited these kids and their parents to a Parent Orientation Dinner to learn about “Graduate, Prepare and Succeed,” an Attendance Improvement Dropout Prevention (A.I.D.P.) program funded by United Way.

Why were these young kids absent so frequently? Every story is different. Some find school boring. Some get in trouble a lot so it’s easier to stay away. Some skip to avoid teasing or bullying. Some have already fallen behind academically. But, without help it’s likely that all of them will have a tough transition to high school and many will drop out. 

Just like a high tech GPS system, Graduate, Prepare, and Succeed (GPS) will guide the way to high school graduation. About 90 students have now enrolled in the program designed to help them transition to high school, improve their attendance, and open their eyes to higher educational opportunities. 

GPS is an incentive-based program. For example, when students have perfect attendance for one full week they receive a free breakfast, and if they have perfect attendance for two full weeks, they receive two free movie tickets.  

High school is a road race where the students are the drivers, their parents and GPS staff the crew, and graduation the destination. Students can earn extra credits, get math tutoring, and participate in life skills classes. The staff makes sure that the students and parents know where they are, the choice of routes and resources available, and how to correct course when you make the wrong turn. 

Everyone celebrates milestones along the way with award ceremonies and certificates of accomplishment, free breakfasts and movie tickets, earned trips to RollerJam USA, Dave & Buster’s, and Six Flags. And, finally, students will arrive at graduation with their next trip already planned – college or other post-secondary training.

The crew – staff and parents -- look forward to guiding James and his classmates through a successful freshman year.  GPS will help them keep the destination in sight. 

The NYCID GPS crew includes:

·         Michael Candella, Director

·         Jessica Panettiere, Counselor

·         Jennifer Quirk, Attendance Outreach 

·         Maria Santana, Bilingual Family Outreach

·         Every student’s parents