Marfa School Board discusses dual credit program revival, wrestles with low attendance rates

MARFA — The Marfa ISD School Board met this week to discuss the district’s dual credit program, which Interim Superintendent Arturo Alferez argued was in need of a revamp, and recent attendance rates that prompted trustees to question the move to the four-day school week.

Alferez told trustees he was in the process of working with Sul Ross State University on a memorandum of understanding to expand and strengthen the district’s dual credit opportunities. The district is currently only working with Odessa College for the program, he said. 

Dual credit programs allow students to take classes that count towards both their high school and college transcripts. Those classes are often offered for free or at a reduced rate and can be advantageous for students from lower income families entering college. 

Alferez said there are currently only two students enrolled in dual credit classes at MISD. He said before he stepped into the role as the head of the district the dual credit program had largely fallen by the wayside, and of the few students involved, some were not passing classes. “I can tell you that in the past few years, we have probably had four [students], and out of those four, two were not successful,” Alferez said. 

“They don’t understand that the ramification of that is that grade stays in the transcript,” he added. 

Students are required to take a college readiness test before they can enroll in dual credit classes. The district missed the deadline to test students in order to enroll them in dual credit classes this spring — a mistake that caused particular concern from two board members who both have kids in high school, Lori Flores and Yolanda Jurado. “Having a junior going into a senior year with no college credits. That to me is like … they’re missing [out],” Jurado said. 

In a follow-up with The Big Bend Sentinel, Alferez attributed the loss of testing to funding and scheduling conflicts between Sul Ross’ testing center and the district.

Alferez said groups of students will take the test at Sul Ross this spring in order to enroll in dual credit classes in the fall. Flores and Jurado asked Alferez what the district was doing to prepare students to ensure they not only take but also succeed in the dual credit program. “What are we doing? What are you doing now to make them successful?” Flores said. 

He said he and the new student success coordinator, David Natividad, were working on putting together a “sustainable plan” for the dual credit program for the future. Alferez said students need to build more self esteem in order to take on more dual credit classes, and ideally by their spring semester junior year they will be taking at least one or two, and up to three, college-level classes. There are also opportunities for them to gain foreign language credits, he said. 

Alferez said the program required more “systems in place and networks” to help students succeed — like ensuring that the master schedule puts all dual credit students in the same class period so they can work together. In a follow-up with The Sentinel Alferez added that more visits with professors and instructors were needed.

He said the program can even be made available to incoming ninth graders if they are able to pass the college readiness test. Flores, whose daughter is currently a sophomore at Marfa High School, told Alferez she was relieved to hear the dual credit program would be expanded to all grade levels. 

“Well, I’m glad to hear that because a couple of meetings back you said just from juniors to seniors will be taken,” Flores said. “It’s getting better and better.” 

There has been significant outside support for the dual credit program. The Marfa Education Foundation (MEF) has been helping fund the program — providing textbooks, supplies and supplemental pay for faculty tutoring hours — since 2013, according to Executive Director Abby Boyd. The organization also offered to help pay for the required college readiness testing. An MEF donor previously provided computers and furniture for a dual credit classroom where students can work anytime of day.

Attendance

Alferez shared that enrollment for the district was currently 210 students, but he was anticipating a few new students enrolling soon. (Last year enrollment was 233 students, and the year before it was 264, meaning enrollment has declined by around 20% in the past two years.)

He said district-wide attendance was 91% for the recently-completed fourth six-weeks of school. Alferez said the problem area where attendance rates were the lowest was the junior high school. By comparison, the elementary campus had a 93.81% attendance rate for the fourth six-weeks, according to Elementary Principal Amy White. 

Since the resignation of Luane Porter this summer, the junior high and high school principal role — which involves overseeing student discipline, including attendance — has been vacant. The board has not publicly discussed filling the position as of late. Alferez did not respond to a request for comment about whether the district was actively seeking a junior high and high school principal. 

Average daily attendance (ADA) is a contributing factor to public school district’s funding in the state of Texas, and it is generally recommended not to dip below 96%. 

School Board President Teresa Nuñez said the board originally thought that the four-day school week — which the district voted to adopt a year ago when the attendance rate was at 92% — would positively impact attendance rates. The same sentiment was voiced by Jurado in November of this year when the district’s attendance rate was hovering around 94%. 

“[We thought by] providing the four-day school week that it would eliminate the absences, but I feel like it hasn’t,” Nuñez said. “I feel like we’re losing more instruction.” 

Nuñez said the continued poor attendance rates are something the district needed “to look into.” 

Alferez argued that there simply wasn’t enough data to go off of, considering this was the district’s pilot year with the alternative four-day schedule. He said he was already in discussions with other administrators on how to adjust the school year calendar to make up for unintended loses in state aid caused by the shortened school week.

“I’ve talked to the admin team on our calendar for next year, how we can adjust on this, how we can recover from not getting ADA, not getting meal reimbursement for the cafeteria, not getting minutes for staff or students,” Alferez said.

He said many absences can be attributed to students falling ill. Both Alferez and White said the Marfa ISD Parent Teacher Organization was working to provide helpful incentives for students with perfect attendance to encourage students to come to school.