                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, September 17, 1995             TAG: 9509170067
SECTION: LOCAL                    PAGE: B1   EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA 
SOURCE: BY ANNE SAITA, STAFF WRITER 
                                             LENGTH: Long  :  221 lines

HIGH DROPOUT RATES, ABSENTEEISM PLAGUE CURRITUCK SCHOOLS

Currituck County is having trouble getting students to come to school and keeping them enrolled through high school graduation.

The school system had one of the worst attendance rates in North Carolina for the 1994-95 school year, ranking 118 out of 119 school systems statewide. It averaged 112th over the past three years.

The 3,054-pupil district's dropout rate for the 1993-94 school year - the latest figures available - was the highest in the Albemarle area, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction in Raleigh.

Ainslie Kirkland, the Currituck County High School dropout coordinator, said high absenteeism often leads to students dropping out. ``You've got a lot of kids who leave because they do miss a lot of school,'' she said.

Figures such as attendance and dropout rates are used each year to evaluate districts and may influence future funding.

Currituck County had an overall dropout rate of 2.77 percent - or 36 of roughly 1,335 students - in grades seven through 12.

Edenton-Chowan County schools was next highest in the area, with 2.22 percent, followed by Elizabeth City-Pasquotank with 1.96, Dare County with 1.83, Perquimans County with .96 and Camden County with .55.

The only other school district with attendance rates close to Currituck's is Perquimans County, which averaged 100th in the state between 1992 and 1995.

Other school systems' attendance rankings ranged from 17th for Edenton-Chowan and 39th for Camden to 42nd in Dare and 60th in Pasquotank.

Currituck County schools officials this week acknowledged the numbers may be discouraging, but some warned that they also may be misleading.

``With small schools, any number that drops out significantly impacts what you're doing,'' said Richard Wardle, Currituck County High School principal.

Wardle also noted Currituck is one of few, if any, districts that does not have an in-school suspension program. The lack of such a program leads to higher dropout numbers. ``If we did, all those kids would be counted and who knows, maybe we'd be 50th in the state.''

Kirkland, who has been with the Currituck system six years, said more students re-enroll or enter alternative degree programs than are indicated by year-end reports.

``It's only a snapshot of a moment in time,'' she said. ``I can't tell you how many kids drop out and then walk back into our doors in September.

``To be honest with you, a lot of them drop out again.''

Officials said they have created programs in the past few years to improve at-risk students' odds of finishing high school.

Kirkland said the programs, such as an alternative school and night school, have helped. ``Our dropout rate has come down, I think, in the last year or two,'' she said.

The county's closeness to the beaches - and easy employment - is another reason school officials give for students dropping out.

``These kids have no trouble getting jobs, and they can make a lot of money working,'' Wardle said. ``Once you start in that routine, you work during the school year, and it can be hard to be motivated to get up for school when you've been working all night.''

One way to keep academically weak students from giving up on a degree is the Personalized Activity Curriculum, which offers small-sized classrooms with a lot of hands-on instruction.

The high school also offers after-school tutoring, with student transportation provided.

Those who drop out are all referred to these programs and the GED high school equivalency diploma program at College of the Albemarle, Kirkland said.

Still, high school personnel say sometimes the law and lack of family support work against them.

Of the 37 students who dropped out last year, almost half had just reached age 16, Kirkland said.

``How can we make people stay in school when the state law says they can get out at 16?'' she said.

``We need to come together as parents and schools officials and talk to our congressmen and our legislators about raising the legal dropout age,'' said Sue Williamson, the Currituck High School social worker.

Williamson is part of an extensive county support system that includes nine guidance counselors, two social workers and three psychologists to help troubled students within its six schools.

``That's very rare - there's not another school system in our region that has this type of support staff, that I know of,'' Williamson said.

One reason Currituck can afford these professionals is because it spends more local dollars per student than most other districts statewide.

The $1,546.18 of local funds spent last year on each pupil is among the highest in the state. Combined with state and federal funding, Currituck County ranks 20th in per-student expenditure among North Carolina school systems.

``We have a good tax base,'' Currituck Schools Superintendent W.R. ``Ronnie'' Capps said. ``And with that tax base, our commissioners are able . of commissioners.''

But Capps was at a loss to explain why, with so many services available, students still didn't want to come to school.

``The transient aspect is one issue. Over and above that, I frankly don't have an answer,'' Capps said.

``People are looking to the schools for all the answers, but we need the community to help us,'' Williamson said. ``We need the parents to help us. We need the churches to help us. We need the grandparents. We just can't do it all ourselves.''

Kirkland said students begin to lose credits when they miss 15 or more days of school, giving them one more reason to lose their motivation to attend.

But, she added, most students do someday earn a diploma.

``Eventually, something does work. They do wind up going one of these routes and getting a piece of paper,'' she said.