Link Crew’s goal is to cut dropout rate

The first year of high school is the roughest.

In Spokane Public Schools, the highest dropout rates are in the freshman classes.

As part of an effort to keep more ninth-graders in school, 100 Shadle Park High School sophomores, juniors and seniors showed up for school Monday – a full three weeks before the school year officially begins.

They came to be trained as mentors who will shepherd the freshmen through their first exciting and complex year of high school.

Stephanie Towner, 17, a Shadle senior and student volunteer, said she was terrified as a freshman.

“I kind of got lost,” Towner said. “I thought Shadle was huge.”

Towner’s past volleyball coach, Brooke Cooper, asked her to join the mentoring program, called the Link Crew. On Monday, Towner started two days of training.

This is the third year that Shadle has rounded up a diverse group of students who applied for the program. The idea is to assign each student to about five freshmen, whom they agree to call, check on and befriend throughout the year.

The lessons in mentoring began with some simple teamwork and mingling.

Many of the students knew only a few of the people around them. That was soon to change.

The first step was learning to stand up simultaneously under the guidance of teacher Troy Heuett.

He’d count, “One, two, three!” Most students would stand, but some didn’t. So they tried again.

After a few tries, they got their first lesson: “We are a cohesive group that does everything together,” Heuett said.

The student volunteers are being trained to be clear, loud and energetic. As student leaders, they need to bounce with positive energy to help the freshmen become comfortable, Heuett said.

Eventually, Heuett led the group through a game of Simple Simon. Then he started a balloon-popping race between hugging students. The gym may have been hot, but the students hollered, cheered and laughed as if this were the best time they’d had in years.

Link Crews first appeared in the district at Ferris High School about eight years ago. Rogers and North Central high schools also use the program.

Shadle Principal Herb Rotchford spoke to the student volunteers to explain the importance of their work.

“I feel so strongly about this program,” Rotchford said.

All students who pass through the halls need to feel welcome, known, valued and supported, he said.

“The highest dropout rates in Spokane Public Schools occur at ninth grade,” Rotchford said.

It’s not uncommon for a high school to lose 60 to 70 students in a year, he said.

Last year, Shadle started with 516 freshmen and ended with 507, which Rotchford talked about with pride.

And those numbers can improve, he said.

Surveys of last year’s freshmen showed that many liked the student Link Crew, but after a couple of months, their mentors faded away.

Rotchford asked the volunteers to stay committed for the entire year.

Sophomore Christine Richart, 15, said she got one call at home from her assigned student mentor but never heard from him again. Now, as a Link Crew leader herself, she said she’s planning on regular contacts with students.

“I’m going to try to do a monthly thing where we can hang out and go bowling,” Richart said.

She confessed she was a little nervous about coming to the training.

“It still feels like I’m a freshman,” Richart said, rubbing her wristband with her black fingernails.