SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
With graduation as the end-goal, a team of counsellors at Sir John High School are taking a new approach to helping more than 90 "at risk" students.

The guidance team, according to school principal Dean MacInnis, aims to become more present in the lives of students who may need a helping hand to their high school diploma.

"Kids are dealing with trauma, addictions, mature students are in situations with financial issues," said MacInnis. "It's our job to connect and make relationships with them so they can form a connection to the building. It's easier for them to transition and cuts down the number of dropouts and increases the chance of success."

The change came about this year after staff recognized the need to do more to help struggling students.

MacInnis said the issues preventing them from doing well are "all over the map," so using the team approach means students can make the most of the skills of all their counsellors.

"We changed the format of everybody's role to kind of tighten it up," he said, sitting in his office Thursday morning.

MacInnis delivered updated statistics on the guidance team's activities to a Yellowknife Education District No. 1 (Yk1) board meeting earlier this year, outlining the scope of the issue.

Of Sir John's 633 students, 93 are "at risk." Of those, nine are truly struggling and 15 have a plan to graduate this year.

It's up to student services assistant Evelyne Straker - and her team of counsellors, including Doreen Cleary, Pam Monkman and Arnold Krause - to keep a close eye on all those students.

Straker says this means making phone calls to parents, connecting with the students at school, tracking their credits how they are doing in classes and whether they're attending.

In one instance this meant visiting parents at home.

Straker serves as the first-point-of contact, then the other counsellors go more in depth to identify why they are having difficulties.

"By the time they (students) get to Doreen, we can get more to the heart of the issue," said MacInnis. "Do we need to contact outside agencies and do we need to bring families on board with the plan for the child?"

MacInnis said a growing trend at the school is seeing many new students flooding in from the communities.

"We're the magnet community," said MacInnis. "People in other communities are hearing good things and they're coming here but that's a big learning curve for most of those kids because they're leaving a school of 100 and coming to a school of 600 that is 10 times the size. That can be overwhelming."

Cleary said she has seen a shift in attitude toward guidance counselling. When she was in school, she said, she only recalls meeting with a guidance counsellor once.

"You never used to have the support unless you made a connection with someone," she said.

Now, as a guidance counsellor, she is taking the attitude that there's no such thing as too much communication, since it helps to win over students who are often struggling with trust issues, she said.

"A lot of these kids, they're lacking trust," she said.

MacInnis said he isn't promising dramatic results but expects the increased assistance will have a positive effect on graduation numbers.

"They won't all get credits, but even if some of them do, that's a positive."

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