SANTA PAULA : Intervention Helps Keep Kids in School

When a third-grade student at Principal Norah Byrom’s Santa Paula elementary school brought her baby sister to class one day this spring, Byrom sent the school’s outreach counselor to work.

The counselor found out that Elena’s parents had left the 2-year-old with her sister, expecting her to stay home from school.

The counselor arranged for an aunt to take the toddler so that Elena could concentrate on classes.

They later worked with the parents to find day care for the child.

The successful intervention allowed Elena to remain in school and learn to read.

“It was a miracle,” said Byrom, principal at Grace Thille and McKevett schools in Santa Paula.

The counseling work is part of a program created to help keep students in school by overcoming problems at home.

At a San Francisco conference late last month, Byrom was named the most supportive principal among the 200 schools in the state that participate in the School-Based Pupil Motivation and Maintenance Program, said Marco Orlando, a consultant who oversees the program.

Started in 1986, the statewide program places dropout specialists at schools with the highest level of poverty and the lowest performance rates, Orlando said.

“Some families today are so bogged down trying to survive that they don’t have enough time to make sure their children are in school,” Byrom said.

“The assistance we provide them could be something very small, like buying a student a new pair of shoes, or help with something just for one day, like with Elena.”

Byrom credited Jackie Wilde and Lynn Garcia, the school’s two outreach consultants, for making the Santa Paula program a success.

Orlando, who selected Byrom from 10 nominees, praised the first-year principal for supporting the outreach program.

“You’ve got to love kids to like this program,” Orlando said about Byrom.