But a decade ago, this Rio Grande Valley city was struggling with one of the highest dropout rates in the state. According to district officials, in 1991 the district had an astronomical annual dropout rate of 15 percent. Since then, there has been a continuous focus on programs for at-risk kids. William Jorn, the chairman of the Harlingen Area Educational Foundation and vice-president and general manager of the local Telemundo TV station, said business leaders realized the dropout was hurting the city's economy. They decided it didn't matter what you do for a school system if the kids aren't there.
Kids dropping out of high school are the greatest drain on a community.
They provide a surplus of untrained, uneducated workers. Today the foundation counts among its members the president of the Harlingen Chamber of Commerce, the owner of an insurance agency, representatives from Valley Baptist Medical Center and the owner of dairy farms among others. Gerry Fleuriet, the vice-chair of the foundation and district board president, said the foundation was the result of an understanding that the school district couldn't win the battle against dropouts alone. Wade, who has been with the district for almost two decades, said most of the district's dropout programs were born out of that time, including KEYS Academy. KEYS offers opportunity Yolanda Gutierrez, principal of KEYS Academy since its inception, said the district did a survey and discovered most dropouts left school in ninth grade, followed by seventh grade.