Living in Poverty: ‘I had given up on myself and education’

Editor’s note: This is the second story of the Bulldog’s Living in Poverty series which serves to highlight the issue in Franklin County. Read the first story here.

As Meghan Johnson exemplifies, the road to obtaining her HiSet, or a high school equivalency diploma, is a difficult one.

First, there are the obvious difficulties. The requirement to analyze texts, use correct grammar, read and regurgitate a book’s synopsis, divide and multiply numbers, take a test- skills that grow rusty with years of dormancy.

Then there are the details. Finding someone to babysit. Finding money to pay that someone to babysit. Finding transportation, time to study and the motivation to persist despite the already heavy burden of just getting through day to day life.

“It’s going to be really hard,” Dawn Harris says.

Harris dropped out of Mt. Blue High School when she was a freshman. After her mother’s unexpected death things began to quickly unravel, leaving Harris emotionally and physically sick, with no parent to offer guidance. She went from being listed on the high grades Honor Roll to getting kicked out of school within a matter of two months.

“I’ve never blamed the school. People have told me I should, but there’s no point. Their system failed me, but I know it works for other people,” Harris said.

By now, numerous studies have told us that a high school diploma, or HiSet, matters. They play a hugely important role in keeping kids out of prison, out of poverty, and out of unemployment.

The numbers are motivating. Dropouts earn roughly $10,386 less than the average high school graduate, with a poverty rate of 30.8 percent. Twelve percent of those without a degree are also without a job. And the chance of someone without a college degree being incarcerated is 63 times higher than those with a degree. These numbers provide haunting motivation for local efforts to keep kids in school. They are a constant reminder that as a community, both small and large, more needs to be done.

For years, Harris struggled with her depression. She fell into an abusive relationship, a boyfriend that Harris describes as “life-sucking,” who convinced her to move out of her godparents’ home at the age of 16. It took several years for Harris to finally leave her partner, and to begin investing in herself again.

“I had given up on myself and education,” she says.

It wasn’t until nearly 10 years later, with a supportive new family, and a stepson about to start Kindergarten, that Harris found herself at Franklin County Adult Basic Education.

“He didn’t want to go to Kindergarten. He would say things like, ‘I don’t need to go to school if you didn’t.’ Which made me realize I couldn’t push them if I couldn’t push myself,” Harris says.

With the help of her husband, her kids, her god family, and numerous staff members, Harris not only got her HiSet, she got her official high school diploma and is about to begin her fourth semester at the University of Maine at Farmington this fall, with firm plans of going on for a doctorate. She’s studying anthropology, with a self-designed second major in Ethnomusicology. Google it.

Harris has spoken at conferences across the state, including at the state capital. And aside from her family’s support, she attributes all of her success to Adult Ed.

“If you’re willing to change, they will bend over backwards to help,” she says.

The program worked with 47 students between the ages of 16 and 20 in this year alone. They have tutors at their finger tips ready to help them all the way to receiving their HiSet. Staff members help organize transportation with the support of Western Maine Transportation Services, and the program is working towards providing low cost meals through Mt. Blue High School’s cafeteria.

In addition to the option of getting their HiSet, students also have access to one of the many career training classes. By meeting with local businesses, the Adult Ed team has determined what the communities needs are in terms of workforce, and has created training programs based on that data. When a need for heating, ventilation and air conditioning technicians was seen, a training course was created. A demand for more certified nursing assistants brought a certification program, which also offers child care through a partnership with the Foster Career and Technical Education Center’s Early Childhood class.

Aside from helping those who have already given up on traditional schooling, a local shift in paradigm is bringing a new focus to students who are enrolled but struggling, with the hopes of not letting them slip away in the first place.

In Regional School District 9, a committee specifically dedicated to this focus has brought together educators, community members, and board members who have created a safety net of support to students who are on the edge of quitting. The Dropout Prevention Committee aims to reach struggling students by offering an understanding approach, flexibility with classes and extra help whenever possible.

“We’re trying to look at how to weave together all the local initiatives in a systematic way to help kids on campus,” co-founder of the Drop Out Prevention Committee and director of Adult Education, Glenn Kapiloff says.

The committee has discussed ideas such as offering a new design of freshman year classes, where smaller groups of students have core teachers they work with. Many students fall behind their freshman year when faced with the academic and social leaps from their middle school years. With extra curricular activities, class work, driver’s ed, chores at home and the social pressures that come with being a teenager, it’s not a wonder that kids who slip freshman year often have a difficult time catching back up. A different approach to this crucial first year would not only provide an easier transition from the middle school, but would also give teachers more of a chance to get to know their students and vice versa.

Members of the committee represent all grade levels and have attended trainings on restorative justice practices, implemented creative programs to boost graduation rates, and offered individualized help to see more students feeling good about school.

Adult Ed plays an important role in this relatively new mode of thought.

“We are a tremendous asset to students who might be struggling to graduate,” Kapiloff says.

He went on to explain that there might be a student who is nearing graduation and knows he or she doesn’t have enough credits to graduate, due, for example, to a struggle with math. That student can continue taking the courses they do well with at Mt. Blue, but can walk over to the Adult Ed campus for extra support with the math.

This kind of direct support helped keep 27 students enrolled at MBHS this year.

“We want to keep them enrolled. Keep them in programs. A lot of this is a direct result of us being right here on campus,” Kapiloff says.

Not only are kids getting more flexible support academically, the schools are working hard to provide a better foundation for the young minds that walk into their buildings each day.

Things like school-based food pantries, clothing drives, and more after school programs are all small examples of the big impact schools can have in the lives of all of their students, and especially those who may not be getting these necessities at home. Nutritious meals, warm clothes and a safe place to play are the building blocks of helping kids succeed at school and beyond.

Which brings us back to Meghan Johnson, and to her girls.

Perhaps if this ripple had been more of a wave 35 or 40 years ago, or if things like the Dropout Prevention Committee had existed when she was a teenager, Meghan wouldn’t be living without her high school education. But even in the reality of not having a diploma, she lives in a community rich in resources, which makes the road to her HiSet that much easier to navigate.

And for her girls, the tools that school staff members are providing on a daily basis are imperative to their successful climb out of poverty.

“The number one way out of poverty is education,” MBRSD 9 Superintendent Tom Ward said at a discussion on the issue of poverty that was held in February. “But we can’t do it alone.”

Editor’s note: The author of this article is related to the Adult Education program director.