Franklin Initiative loses ‘Benjamins’ to fund program

After this school year, a graduation coaching program in three local high schools might be cut.

The Franklin Initiative, a part of the Bloomington Chamber of Commerce, was created in the 1990s to bring the framework of Benjamin Franklin’s lifelong learning to the Bloomington community.

However, one of the initiative’s most successful programs might disappear after this year. The Graduation Coach Initiative was created in 2007 to combat high dropout rates at Bloomington High School North, Bloomington High School South and Edgewood High School.

“We wanted to develop a workforce that wouldn’t just have to stay rooted in one career their whole lives,” said Matt Wysocki, chamber director of workforce initiatives. “This program is a way to prepare the next generation of the workforce to be lifelong learners.”

The Chamber provides one graduation coach for each school. These coaches are experienced social workers who function as members of the high schools’ staffs.

“Public schools have changed,” Wysocki said. “In the last decade or two, with decreasing resources, it’s harder for counselors and social workers to focus on kids who need help the most.”

School counselors are responsible for standardized testing and class scheduling in addition to their traditional duties. The coaches help pick up loose ends, dedicating their days to one-on-one counseling, monitoring grades and connecting with parents. They work with “at-risk” students who have low grade-point averages, poor attendance or low credit attainment.

“I think it’s a really valid program,” BHSS Graduation Coach Drhea Townsend said. “As far as my current students go, they are really upset. If the program disappeared, it would eliminate a lot of individual one-on-one work, individual planning and individual goal-setting. My students are amazing kids. You can’t really spend that much time one-on-one without fostering a relationship of trust.”

Through a $200,000 grant from AT&T, the schools incur no additional costs from employing these coaches, but students are able to benefit from the services, Wysocki said.

Although the four-year grant expired in December 2011, another grant is temporarily funding the program through the end of the school year. Once that funding disappears, so will the program, and Wysocki said he thinks the “stellar graduation rates would drift back down,” too.

In the 2010-11 school year, 194 of the 219 students in the program graduated or advanced to the next school year. Only 25 students dropped out, and 60 percent improved their GPAs. Since 2007, graduation rates have improved by almost 10 percent at BHSS and Edgewood and by almost 6 percent at BHSN.    

Although the Chamber is trying to find funding to continue the program next year, it is having a difficult time competing for grants.

“We are actively seeking out grants, but a lot of grants are going to larger cities, urban cities,” Wysocki said. “It is harder for a small, relatively well-off community like Bloomington to compete with Philly or Cleveland.”

He said the chamber is hopeful that AT&T will renew the grant, but right now, much is up in the air.

The Franklin Initiative’s other programs, including career panels and job-shadowing opportunities for Bloomington middle-school and high-school students, will continue next year.

“These are not just school issues or school concerns, but the concerns of the community as a whole,” Wysocki said. “We all have important roles to play in preparing the next generation of young professionals to live as successful and independent adults.”