Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Man's job: Prevent dropouts

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Thursday, March 29, 2001
Man's job: Prevent dropouts
Troy Nickleson brings new ideas to district
By Jeremy Schwartz
Caller-Times

David Pellerin/Caller-Times

Susan Erwin, a teacher at Kaffie Middle School, and Troy Nickleson, the school district's dropout intervention specialist, work with at-risk kids.

Troy Nickleson was just 6 years old when his father was shot and killed.
   The experience, Nickleson said, left him filled with rage. Living in a public housing project near T.C. Ayers, Nickleson said he often came home from school and cried to his mother.
   "As a child I was very rebellious," he said. "I didn't like anybody, I didn't trust anybody."
   What saved him, he says, was a strong mother and teachers who made sure he valued education.
   "When I grew up in the system, I always had teachers who never gave up on me despite the anger and pain of losing my dad at an early age," he said. "They told me my dad would have wanted me to continue my education, to make something of myself."
   Those teachers - Nickleson can name each one between grades 1 and 12 - left a mark on him that Nickleson wants to leave on others. As the Corpus Christi Independent School District's dropout intervention specialist, he is looking for innovative ways to connect with at-risk kids and keep them from leaving school.

Dropout Prevention Resources
Alternative Education Programs
Corpus Christi Alternative High School Center, 994-3576
Flour Bluff Alternative Center for Education, 694-9002
Kingsville KEYS Academy, (361) 595-9185
Robstown Alternative Learning Center, 387-2835
Corpus Christi Teen-Age Mothers School, 886-9372
Tuloso-Midway Academic Career Center, 241-3937
At-Risk Charter Schools
Gulf Coast Council of La Raza Academy of Transitional Studies, 881-9988 Richard Milburn Academy, 225-4424
GED Programs
Adult Learning Center, 886-9385
Kingsville Night High School, (361) 595-9064
Del Mar College, 698-1645
Other Resources
Corpus Christi ISD Dropout Intervention Office, 886-9065
National Dropout Prevention Center, www.dropoutprevention.org or (864) 656-2599

   "I tell them, 'It's up to you to take responsibility.' I don't sugarcoat it," he said. "These kids are troubled kids, they're making bad choices. They've got that wall up. But they will loosen up if you show trust and interest."
   Since graduating from what is now Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Nickleson said, he has known he wanted to help kids walk the same path he has. Before being named CCISD dropout intervention specialist last year, Nickleson spent more than six years as a district security officer, acting as a liaison with the police department and regularly speaking with students about making the right choices.
   Nickleson focuses much of his time on elementary and middle school students, hoping to reach them before they're already lost.
   The centerpiece of Nickleson's dropout prevention efforts is the G.A.B. program, developed last year by Nickleson, Kaffie Middle School counselor Susan Bales-Erwin, and Hamlin Middle School counselor Leslie Owens.
   The program - short for Grades, Attendance and Behavior - brings together a group of 20 to 30 at-risk middle school students for weekly meetings that often become group therapy sessions. The students listen to speakers, go on field trips and discuss ways to change behavior. "They need to feel connected," he said. The students develop a bond in the class, often looking out for each other outside the class.
   Thomas Stockton, an eighth grader at Kaffie Middle School, was a troublemaker who missed a lot of classes before he joined the G.A.B. program.
   "It's completely changed me," he said. "Troy's just kind of inspired me to do work. He's just an all-out good person. He'll do stuff for me, so I'll do stuff for him."
   Unfortunately, Nickleson said, many teachers and officials aren't ready to embrace new ideas when it comes to reducing dropouts.
   While it received an enthusiastic response when Nickleson presented it to a group of middle school principals, the G.A.B. program has only been implemented in about half of CCISD's middle schools.
   Nickleson also wants to extend the program to the elementary level, to reach at-risk students at an even earlier age. The elementary school students would then automatically move into the G.A.B. program when they got older.
   Although teachers and administrators haven't been as quick to embrace new ideas on dropout prevention as Nickleson would like, district officials are impressed with Nickleson's ability to relate to students and inspire them.
   Said Pinky Brauer, president of the CCISD school board, "If we could clone Troy Nickleson, we wouldn't have a dropout problem."

Staff writer Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 886-3779 or by e-mail at schwartzj@caller.com

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