Bay District Schools officials react to drop in graduation rates

BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - The graduation rates for the 2021-2022 school year in Florida have been released. For Bay District Schools, the numbers didn’t show what officials said they hoped to see, but they say the district is still on the right track.

”We’re proud of these students who have completed the requirements to graduate on time,” Bill Husfelt, superintendent of Bay District Schools, said at a press conference Tuesday. “The federal graduation rate does not include ESE diplomas, and it does not include GEDs. We have a lot of students that take those paths and so they’re not calculated in that.”

The report, made by the Florida Department of Education, shows the graduation rate for the district is 85.3% for the 2021-2022 school year. That is down 4.9% from the previous school year. However, officials said they are pleased to see the graduation rates have increased from the 2018-2019 school year, when it was 81.1%.

Despite the slight dip in the most recent report, BDS representatives said Tuesday that they are focusing on the programs they have in place to help students succeed.

“One of the most important things we’ve implemented in Bay District Schools is we have graduation coaches on each and every campus,” Jennifer Jennings, the district’s Instructional Specialist for Dropout Prevention, said.

“We also have designed some resource classrooms for both middle and high school,” Todd Mitchell, principal of Rutherford High School, said. “In those ESE resource classrooms, students are assigned to teachers and those teachers provide that intensive instruction for those students.”

Officials said programs like these are essential for helping students graduate, but they wouldn’t be possible without the hard work of the staff who implement them.

“The teacher is the key,” Mitchell said. “The curriculum is nothing more than a tool that the teacher uses to make a difference in the lives of these students.”

BDS staff told NewsChannel 7 that while their goal is to continue trying to increase the graduation rates, their main focus is simply helping each and every student.