Published Friday, January 10, 2003
Herald Staff Writer
Mercer County Career Center is zeroing in on truancy in the school. Administrators hit the bulls-eye when Target department store in Niles decided to give them a helping hand.
"We thought it would be great to partner with someone and especially Target," said school principal Larry Clemens, noting he contacted Target last summer to see if the store would help the school's attendance program.
A reason Clemens requested the store's involvement was because of the theme of their anti-truancy program -- a target board with rings representing the four nine weeks.
The program involves the awarding of prizes, such as televisions, VCRs, cordless phones, CD players and phone cards, to students who don't miss class. Clemens said students' attendance is generally very good, about 95 percent during the 2001-02 school year, but the school wanted to improve that rate.
"For a high school, 95 percent is really good, but we're shooting for 98 percent," said Clemens. "We started a program eight years ago to target this problem through different ways because it's important. The focus was really all about what we're all about -- to build employability skills."
Target store manager Rick Jenkins agreed, and that's part of the reason he opted to partner with the school.
"Its very important to establish those routines now -- to get those work ethics in them now that they'll have for life," Jenkins said. "It's important for kids to go to school, bottom line."
"Its nice to have Target's help. They're definitely helping to build tomorrow's workforce," Clemens said.
Clemens emphasized he gives his staff a lot of the credit for the good attendance at the school. "Its a team thing all the way around," he said.
Target made donations of items totaling close to $500 during the program kickoff in October and will be doing a second kickoff next week to start the third nine weeks at the school.
Jenkins said the Target corporation gives back five percent of pre-tax earnings to the communities in which they are located, which averages about $2 million a week. The Niles store is involved in about a dozen service projects throughout the year.
"We take a lot out of life, but when its over, what can we look back on that we've given? It's just my own personal philosophy," the store manager said. "I think I take that above and beyond. I'm very passionate about that."
Future collaborations between the store and the career center may include student job-shadowing and allowing school administrators to take part in store employee training.
"We're trying to take the partnership even beyond attendance," Jenkins said. "We thought we'd let them (the administrators) see as an employee what we're looking for so they can incorporate that into their curriculum. And we're trying to open up our facility to give the students some real-world experience."