Four years ago, Franklin High School had the infamous reputation as having the highest dropout rate in the state.
In response, the school began a number of programs to keep students in school.
And the plan appears to be working; the dropout rate has decreased dramatically.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Amy Quinton reports on how Franklin High School managed to turn itself around.
(nat sound) Students at Franklin High School shuffle through the hallways between classes.
For a high school of about 450 students, it seems relatively quiet and organized as students grab books from their lockers.
But that wasn’t the case just four years ago.
Principal Robert Bramman says back then, students often fought in the hallways; it was almost expected.
"it was a little chaotic because some of the kids that were out of control with behavior, felt they had the right to be out of control. Some of the parents felt they had the right to be out of control"
The school also had a 50-percent dropout rate.
That’s using the toughest dropout definition -- looking at how many of the school’s ninth graders stayed through their senior year.
Franklin High School had a lot stacked against it.
Franklin is a poor city, one of the Claremont plaintiff towns.
And it’s had a tax cap in place since the late 1980’s, so revenues from property taxes could increase only so much a year.
Bramman says as a result when it comes it to budget time, the high school was often ignored, and the students felt that no one cared.
"The kids felt that very much, the two questions I was asked by kids when I came on was, why do you want to come here, and how long are you going to stay."
Franklin High School Student Chaz Mitchell was a freshman back then.
"I got to high school there’s no personal one on one, so I just went wild, had a good time, and didn’t go to class, and then the next thing I knew I’m a freshman again, and then again the next year, then I was like screw this, so I dropped out"
A lot has changed since then.
Now, the school’s dropout rate is just 18 percent by the toughest definition, just 5 percent a year.
But that rate didn’t drop by chance.
The school aggressively sought to improve its numbers.
The administration formed its own task force that researched what kinds of students were dropping out and why.
One of the things they found was that students who were skipping school and getting in trouble – like Mitchell – were given no opportunity to makeup missed work.
Mitchell says back then the school attendance policies made it almost impossible to get back on track.
"I’d come back with a bunch of Centrals, which were their detentions, and after you get so many they’d kick you out, so I’d miss a day and come back and get kicked out for three, so I was nining out all the time, which means I didn’t get any credits even though my grades were passing."
That’s one of the policies the school has since changed.
"high school students make bad choices on occasion…"
Coach William Haight is the Vice Principal at Franklin High.
"and when they make bad choices there has to be a way for them to recover from that"
Haight says the school now gives students the chance to make up work after school with a teacher, or work independently on courses using a computer program called Novanet.
The school also received a federal dropout prevention grant called APEX.
APEX Co-Director Gail Cormier.
"You always had a great group of people up at Franklin, they just had to rearrange how they do their discipline, how do we fit in these programs to really grow and nurture these kids."
Cormier says the grant combines two strategies designed to lower dropout rates.
One emphasizes the positive aspects in any disciplinary action, rather than the negative. Principal Robert Bramman:
"we’re trying to reward kids thoughtfully and intelligently, not falsely, but trying to reward them for the good they do rather than yell at them for the bad that they do"
For example, students are given tickets for doing good things, or for not doing bad ones.
Students with enough tickets are able to go to a high school dance for free.
Such tactics may seemed designed for elementary school, but Chaz Mitchell, who’s now come back to Franklin to get his GED, says the entire attitude of the school has changed.
"I noticed a humongous difference, the teachers care, the students care, there’s not fighting or pushing and shoving in the hallways, it’s not a perfect school, but the difference is ridiculous."
The other prevention strategy helps students at risk of dropping out through a program called Project Renew.
Kim Mitchell oversees about 12 students involved in that project at Franklin.
She helps them find alternative ways of learning through independent study or tutoring.
But goes also takes it a step further and offers counseling and one on one attention.
"they come in they talk to me almost every day, most of them, we talk to about a variety of things, not just school could be personal, could be social issues, could be home, could be any number of things, and we make a connection. If a kid feels connected at school, they’re going to show up."
That connection helped Chaz Mitchell when he ran into problems at home – problems that could have jeopardized his ability to finish school.
"I went through some stuff with my family where I wasn’t at home, I was homeless for a while and just the response from them was awesome, they came out with like a million lists of places I could go and all this type of stuff, really amazing."
The 250-thousand dollar APEX grant has helped the school’s dropout numbers, but it’s not a magic bullet, says Bonnie St. Jean with New Hampshire’s Department of Education.
She says Franklin has put its own unique brand on solving the problem.
"There’s a number of other initiatives that have been undertaken by the greater Franklin community, businesses are involved, it’s a holistic approach, it’s not that one person said, this is unacceptable let’s turn it around, it took the community to come together to achieve what they’ve achieved today."
Just last year, the school also established a Freshman mentoring program two days a week.
Since then Vice Principal Haight says the number of times students were sent to his office for bad behavior has dropped from more than 1400 last year, to just 400 this year.
"all we’re doing is parenting them, giving them support, telling them you can do it, encouraging them, and we’re providing other things around it to make it easier."
As for Chaz Mitchell, the school’s turnaround has changed his life as well.
He’s gone from a high school dropout working at a Subway, to a student with high aspirations.
"I’m trying to get in the peace corp and I’m trying to like, I really want to go to college, and I really want to make something out of it, and just keep going and they really really showed me that I can, that I’m capable of that."
Students and faculty at Franklin High School are hoping the school can continue to build on its success.
But it may be difficult; much of the federal grant money that helped the school dries up in December.
And the City of Franklin still has that tax cap in place.
Administrators will likely have to find a way to keep students in school without funding for the programs, or hope for other grants.
For NHPR news, I’m Amy Quinton.
