BY DAN HILDEBRAN
The director of the Community Partnership School at Keystone Heights High School spoke to a Lake Region civic club on July 9.
Isaac Morford told the Keystone Heights Rotary Club that his job is to remove barriers so students can succeed.
The Community Partnership School at the Orchid Avenue campus is one of 50 across Florida that aims to provide resources to economically disadvantaged students.
The four pillars of the partnership are wellness support, family and community engagement, expanded opportunities, and collaborative leadership.
The Children’s Home Society, the oldest nonprofit organization in the state of Florida, leads the partnership school. Other participants are the Clay County School District, Aza Health, and Santa Fe College.
Morford held up the Community Partnership School in Jefferson County as an example of how partnerships, like the one he leads, can make a significant difference.
The state took over the poor-performing school district, with one school for K through 12th-grade students, a few years ago, and turned the district over to a charter school company.
Morford said that after one year, the charter school company gave up.
“And so, the community partnership school program was brought in two years later,” he said. “And now they’re an ‘A’ school. That’s not saying it was the magic of the Community Partnership school, but it is saying that we are really focusing on the whole student, the whole community, the whole family, and we are seeing results statewide.”
Morford said that one of the primary goals of his group this year was to increase attendance among students at Keystone Heights High School.
“We ended up getting up to 92% this year,” he said. “That’s a 3% increase. That’s massive. When we’re talking about students showing up at school, on average, that is every student in school showing up about five or six more days. That’s pretty huge.”
Morford said Camp Boost is another of the partnership’s projects. The summer camp, which was going on at the time of Morford’s talk, helps students transition from elementary school to junior high.
He added that 16 incoming seventh graders and three model students were at Camp Immokalee as he spoke.
The camp equips participants with coping tools, personal hygiene tips, social interaction skills, and other resources that help them get through high school.
“Today they’re going to be getting a hygiene presentation on how to not be the smelly kid in class and how to take care of yourselves and set yourself up on the right foot,” he said.
Morford said Camp Boost is now in its fourth year. He added that prior participants are outperforming their peers in attendance and other measurements.
Morford added that his organization is focusing on supporting students in math.
“Math’s a difficult one because if you miss skills in elementary school, you need those skills, but it’s not directly affecting the math homework that’s due tomorrow, as far as the student sees it.”
Morford said he is trying to help students catch up in math who have fallen behind.
