SALAMANCA — Graduation rates are up nearly 15 percent and dropout rates are down nearly 20 percent at the Salamanca Junior-Senior High School, according to Dr. Mark Beehler, assistant superintendent for academic services.

The Salamanca City Central School District last week released a preliminary report stating students in the cohort year of 2013 — which is the class graduating in 2017 — could have a graduation rate of 83 percent, an increase from 68 percent graduating in 2016, according to the district.

Furthermore, students in the cohort year of 2013 had only three dropouts, about 4 percent of the entire class, a decrease from last year’s 23 percent, which saw 19 students drop out between entering ninth grade and graduation, according to district data presented at a June 13 school board meeting.

“That’s several years’ worth of work to get those up to where they are,” Beehler said in a conversation with The Press. “Probably one of the most important things to realize is that it takes several years to recover from high dropouts.”

Beehler presented finalized data with June 23 commencement numbers factored in at the June 27 Board of Education meeting. (Click here for related story.)

The district hit a low of 59 percent of the class of 2013 graduating in four years. District data for dropout rates for that same class four years ago were at 17 percent.

The district also reported the Native American student graduation rate for 2017 graduates is also 83 percent, up from a low of 42 percent in 2014. In that same class, none of the three dropouts were Native American students, according to district data.

“It gives me tremendous pleasure and pride to inform you of significant growth, achievement and progress in meeting the needs of our learners, our community and our school district,” said Superintendent Robert Breidenstein in a statement. “This progress is possible because of the collaboration with the (Seneca Nation of Indians), parents, staff, students and the community.”

Beehler said the district tracks students by the year they enter ninth grade, which is the same way New York state tracks and organizes district data.

Although Salamanca has some students who are on four-and-a-half-, five- or even six-year plans, Beehler said the state defines a four-year high school career as the benchmark for determining success of a particular school.

Of the 81 students in the 2013 cohort, seven of them earned a GED and three dropped out, one of whom left the school and moved to another state, Beehler said. But because the district has no evidence that the individual is in school somewhere else, it counts as a dropout.

“Essentially, in the fall (2016), we started with 71 students, and five did not walk the stage,” he explained. “Two of them are on a five-year plan, so we take a loss to our graduation rate for those two.”

Although it doesn’t change the four-year cohort data, Beehler said knowing who the students are and what they’re doing to either graduate in five years or earn a GED has made a difference, especially if those students did initially drop out.

“In some cases, we pick them up at their house and got them re-registered in school,” he said. “At least being able to get them back into school to get their GED is a commencement credential that allows them to get a job or go in the military, and in that case they’re not considered a dropout.”

For the students who would have come back to school, Beehler said new approaches the district has taken include counselors working together with administrators to track down all dropouts who entered ninth grade in 2013 and began working with BOCES to put programs together for those students.

“Our student services department — our guidance counselors — have done an outstanding job,” Beehler said. “We basically have a list of students that we said we need to keep track of these students, we need to find these students and get them back in school.”

Getting dropouts back in may have been a priority, but seniors with a chance of failing were on the district’s radar as well.

“As we watched the students, there were 12 seniors that we went out to their houses on Saturdays and met with them and their families to ensure there is a plan for them to be successful,” Beehler said. “That was another one of the pieces that was a bit unique. Something we’ve never done before.”

According to the New York State Education Department, the district had a graduation rate of 65 percent in 2016 including everything, not regents and local diplomas only. Official data from the state for the 2016-17 school year would not be released until later this year.

The current way the state tracks students and produces graduation and dropout data has only been around for eight years, Beehler said. Although the district’s data had been lower in those first four years, the last four years have shown steady increases, particularly since 2016, all of which, Beehler said, will be reflected in the state data later this year.

“These students all earned Regents diplomas, and we can’t fake a passing grade on a Regents exam,” he said. “The key is that the students have worked hard for the past four years.”

(Email reporter Kellen Quigley at kquigleysp@gmail.com.)