High School Principal Mr. Robinson said at the June 4 Board of Education meeting that his building set multi-year, data-driven goals focused on increasing the graduation rate among economically disadvantaged students, lowering chronic absenteeism and class cuts, and strengthening career-readiness skills.

Mr. Robinson told the board that 109 economically disadvantaged seniors entered the school year eligible to graduate, of whom nine transferred out and 12 dropped out, leaving 88 students who could still receive diplomas this June. He said his working target is an 80 percent graduation rate for that group, but cautioned that the final figure will not be known until commencement on June 26.

The principal described strategies including regular parent outreach, interim-period phone calls, in-person parent meetings and focused intervention beginning in ninth grade. He said ninth-grade outreach included contacting every freshman who was failing one or more courses and every freshman with multiple A grades to engage families early.

On chronic absenteeism, Mr. Robinson said the high school's current rate is about 26 percent and that the number has declined for four consecutive years. He described a targeted effort this year that tracked 40 students identified as “on the fringe” (those with roughly 18–20 absences last year). Of those 40, 21 are no longer chronically absent; 19 remain on the list with 10 showing a further increase in absences. He noted the state counts both excused and unexcused absences equally for chronic-absence calculations.

Mr. Robinson also reported a decline in the number of students who cut class (a 19 percent reduction in students who cut), though he said total cuts by block may not have fallen proportionally because remaining students sometimes cut multiple blocks. To address behavior he said the school reduced warnings and increased in-school suspensions (ISS) and other disciplinary dispositions, noting a big drop in fights — from 54 in his first year to 20 in the current year.

On career readiness, Mr. Robinson described formation of a career advisory committee of trade and industry professionals, convened April 3 and planned as an annual meeting. He said attendees — including representatives from construction trades, unions and an architect working with the district — emphasized soft skills (reliability, interviewing, punctuality, teamwork) as most important for entry to the workforce. He said CTE (career and technical education) programs have received reapproval notices from the state while the committee will advise teachers on incorporating workplace readiness into coursework.

Board members praised the data-driven approach and the focus on early intervention, and advised celebrating incremental gains while continuing to set stretch goals.

Mr. Robinson said final graduation numbers and end-of-year attendance totals will be clear after June 26; until then the figures presented were mid-May/early June snapshots.