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Roosevelt students focused on goals in RPS 205

By Mary Kaull
Posted Aug 22, 2018 at 10:58 AM

Skye Nichols wrote a letter of advice to underclassmen

that appeared in Roosevelt Community Education
Center’s student blog last year. She said she wished
someone would have given her a checklist of dos and
don’ts in school. Roosevelt Principal Morgan Gallagher
must have been listening. His advice for Roosevelt
students on the first day of [...]

Roosevelt students march during graduation

ceremonies last spring.

Skye Nichols wrote a letter of advice to underclassmen that appeared in

Roosevelt Community Education Center’s student blog last year. She said she
wished someone would have given her a checklist of dos and don’ts in school.

Roosevelt Principal Morgan Gallagher must have been listening.

His advice for Roosevelt students on the first day of the 2018-19 school year was
blunt and unmistakable. ‘It’s real simple,’ he told students gathered in Roosevelt’s
auditorium. ‘You just need to show up and you need to do the work.’
If the advice was simple, Roosevelt students’ lives can be complicated. Some have
children of their own. Some have gotten off-track in their school careers. Some
have to work to support their families and can’t follow a traditional high school
schedule.

A traditional high school schedule requires that students complete 14 credits a

year. At Roosevelt, students must complete six credits every 90 days they are
enrolled. And they must have 90 percent attendance, which translates into only
one absence every other week.

Gallagher explained to the students what is and is not allowed. ‘If you have a job
interview, that’s an excused absence. If your car breaks down on the way to
school, that stinks. I’m sorry for you, but that is not excused.’

In spite of roadblocks that life can put in the way, 40 students at Roosevelt
earned more than 20 credits last year”a workload that’s nearly 43 percent greater
than traditional high school students at Rockford Public Schools. About 200
students at Roosevelt reached their goal and graduated last school year. Skye
Nichols has only nine credits to go before she graduates.

Perhaps because of the obstacles Roosevelt students can face, the connection
between students and staff is remarkable. In the most recent 5Essentials survey
distributed to all Illinois public schools, 99 percent of Roosevelt students
reported trust in their teachers and 97 percent of staff reported a commitment to
their school.

The next assignment for Roosevelt is to get more students focused on continuing
their education beyond graduation.

Jordi Sanchez doesn’t need any convincing. He’s only seven credits from
graduation, and would like to pursue a two-year degree at Rock Valley College.
A member of Roosevelt’s Engineering, Manufacturing, Industrial and Trades
Technology (EMITT) academy, Jordi would like to study a construction-related
field at RVC.

At Roosevelt, he will have a lot of support to reach his goal. Principal Gallagher
emphasized the help in his first-day message. ‘Whatever adversity or challenges
you face,’ he told students, ‘you will be successful here.’
Students learn the lesson well. As Skye Nichols advised Roosevelt underclassmen
in her blog post: ’Every person has the ability to be whoever and whatever they
want to be.

‘One day, you will be standing here too, on your own two feet, stronger than
before.’

Mary Kaull is strategic communications coordinator for the Rockford Public Schools.
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