Jason Spencer has written a nice story (it’s true!) about HISD’s success with students who had previously dropped out:
A 21-year-old mother living in one of Houston’s poorest neighborhoods, Claudia Betancourt wasn’t thinking about school when she heard a knock at the door last August.
Jobless and unsure of her future, Betancourt cracked the door to see Houston Independent School District Superintendent Abelardo Saavedra and about 20 volunteers waiting.
“The next thing you know, I looked up and my whole street was blocked,” Betancourt said.
What would it take, they asked, to get her back in school and off HISD’s dropout list?
Promises were made, and by day’s end Betancourt was in the Furr High School nurse’s office getting the immunization she needed to go back to school.
“One of my teachers helped me get a job at Fiesta,” she said. Others lined up daytime childcare for her two young children.
This weekend, Betancourt and 47 other former dropouts coaxed back to school through HISD’s Reach out to Dropouts program will get their diplomas. Most of the 291 returning students completed the school year that ends Thursday, Saavedra said.
“Some did, indeed, drop out again. But others stayed,” he said. “I can’t think of a day when I’ve been more proud to be superintendent.”
Spencer’s article also mentions the story of Emmanuel Miranda, who was included in the post I ran over the weekend.
It’s wonderful to read a story like this. We don’t need bad news all the time; good news is good for the soul!
