Ogden School District boosts high school graduation

OGDEN — Graduation day in the Ogden School District, and no one appreciates the importance of this day more than Deliah Romero. "I got told many times that I wasn't able to graduate and people looked at me and told me personally that I wasn't going to make it, and that I wasn't going to do anything, be anything, and I proved them wrong because I had support," Romero said. She and hundreds of other students, who likely would not have made it in the past, are now getting their diplomas, as part of a huge graduation turnaround in the Ogden School District. "We had an issue with graduation rates, and we had to really take a look at the root cause of what it was," said Superintendent Luke Rasmussen. [gallery ids="781492,781491"] In 2016, graduation in Ogden was 68%.  At George Washington High School the numbers were even lower — 25% In 2024, the most recent numbers available from the State Board of Education show Ogden School District now has a graduation rate of 90% and at George Washington High, an astonishing 87%. "The community at George Washington is powerful, really powerful," said graduate Kassel Stohel.Stohel describes a time when mental health  had contributed to chronic absences from school.  She had almost given up hope of graduating. "I was in a very depressive time in my life.  I couldn't get out of bed ever, and I lost all sense of myself.  And everything I'd worked so hard to do was down in the dumps," she said. The changes that brought about those impressive graduation numbers, helped students like Kassel Stohel achieve their goals. How did they do it? Superintendent Rasmussen said they first had to get to know every student and their needs. "Our teachers, our counselors, our administrators are really adept at meeting every student where they're at, knowing them and throwing extra intervention around those students," he said. They created "hot sheets," lists of every student color coded, based on their graduation status, green for on track, yellow for extra tracking and red for at risk. Then came the heavy lifting — figuring out what barriers were keeping at risk students from attending school.  And they had to work to remove those barriers. "Attendance is very important.  If we can't get the kids here, then we can't help them.  So that's part of the process.  It's really understanding, what is the issue with the student," said Rasmussen. Educators made home visits, phone calls after every absence and tried to drill down on whether students needed transportation, a job or whether babysitting their siblings were keeping them from attending. Administrators said their plans didn't require more funding, but different focus. They leaned heavily on parents to help communicate with parents and to help remove attendance barriers. In the end, Ogden's graduation turnaround has become about more than impressive numbers.  That's the whole point; these students have become more than numbers. Graduation has transformed the lives of these teenagers, who now have hope and confidence in their futures. That was evident in the celebration of Anahi Velasquez. She momentarily choked up, when talking about her struggles and doubts that she faced during high school."Honestly, growing up, it was always hard," Velasquez said." I didn't think I would amount to anything or achieve anything in my life, I really didn't. I didn't think I was worthy...so being here today really proves to me and everybody else who doubted me, that I did it... I did it!

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