When Alex Apostle was a boy, his immigrant mother constantly
reminded him of one thing.

“Alex, you’re going to college,” she said over and over, in the
face of the darkest doubts. “Work hard, because you’re going to
college.”

One day, with that destination in mind, the young Apostle went
in to talk with the high school guidance counselor at Woodrow
Wilson High School in Tacoma, Wash.

This was the late 1960s, when a war raged in Vietnam.

College, said Apostle.

No, said the counselor. Machine gunner. Give up the college,
boy, you’re going to war.

That he might be called to serve his country struck Apostle as
an acceptable possibility. Not going to college, however, was
heresy.

“He crushed me, but he also pushed me. From that day on, I’ve
been very much in support of kids staying in school,” the Missoula
County Public Schools superintendent said recently. “That’s the
future, for our kids and for our communities.”

It’s with stories like his own in mind that Apostle will unveil
in January a broad-ranging initiative to keep children in
school.

“This is something that will be undertaken by the entire
community, because it’s about the whole community,” said Apostle,
who has rounded up a committee of nearly 30 people from schools,
the University of Montana and the business community. “Keeping kids
in school isn’t just the responsibility of schools and teachers and
parents. It’s about the larger community, and that’s why we’re
reaching out.”

Although Missoula is blessed with good schools, it has a dropout
problem, just like the rest of the country. Between

25 percent and 30 percent of students who start school fail to
finish high school.

“That’s not acceptable to me, and that’s why we’re going to do
better,” Apostle said.

Apostle, who has the support of the MCPS board of trustees, has
enlisted UM President George Dennison, who has his own
student-retention initiative under way.

“Working on this doesn’t cost anybody any money,” said Dennison,
who writes letters of encouragement each year to high school
freshmen. “This is about involvement, and that’s why we need
everyone to take part.”

Apostle also reached out to the business community, where Susan
Hay Patrick, chief executive officer of United Way and president of
Missoula Sunrise Rotary, agreed to pitch in.

“This is something we’re involved in with the United Way
already, so it’s a natural,” Patrick said. “It’s also something
that is immensely valuable in our community, and we in the business
community need to promote that value.”

Apostle said that while schools are integral in keeping students
focused and involved, teachers and administrators can’t do it
all.

Family dynamics and social ills are just as important when it
comes to keeping kids in school.

“We face the same problems we’ve always faced – poverty, poor
health, lack of parent involvement,” Apostle said. “We have to do
our jobs as well, but it’s not as simple as having a good program
with good teachers.”

Societal problems are too often used as an excuse for dropout
rates, but to Apostle they’re simply that.

“We’re going to always have those problems, but with enough
involvement from the community, better programs, better work on our
part, more attention from parents, we can do something about the
dropout rate,” he said.

The numbers have always supported staying in school.

A 2009 study by the Alliance for Excellent Education made the
point  yet again. This summer, the unemployment rate for high
school dropouts was 15.4 percent, compared to 9.4 percent for high
school graduates.

About 8 percent of people with some college credit or an
associate’s degree were out of work, while only 4.7 percent of
people with a bachelor’s degree or higher were unemployed.

And those who were working earned substantially more with more
education.

According to the alliance’s study, the average annual income for
a high school dropout in 2005 was $17,299, compared to $26,933 for
a high school graduate, a difference of nearly $10,000.

Dropouts don’t just fare poorly when it comes to work. They’re
more likely to have health problems, less likely to have health
insurance and eight times more likely to be arrested.

“That’s why we have to let them know we truly care about them,”
Apostle said. “Then they’ll understand that education is in their
best interest.”

Of course, just telling kids they’re important won’t do it, and
Apostle and his committee understands that.

“Within the business community, we need to be more hands-on,”
said Patrick. “We need to be ready to mentor. We need to have more
internships and job shadow programs. We need to be in the schools
and available to students.”

That presence would be welcome, said Dave Severson, president of
the Missoula Education Association, the teachers’ union.

“It’s easy to feel sometimes like we’re trying to do it all, and
we just can’t,” he said. “We need some buy-in from everyone and
that includes people outside the school district.”

Apostle said the program is still coming together, and will
remain a work in progress.

“We are going to be open to new ways of doing things and nothing
will be off the table,” he said.

The initiative will kick off formally on Jan. 19, at 10:30 a.m.,
with a press conference at the University of Montana.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau will be
present, as will Mayor John Engen.

The initiative will also have its own Web site,
graduationmattersmissoula.org, which is not live yet.

“This is not something we’re going to do for six months or a
year, it’s forever,” Apostle said.

Reporter Michael Moore can be reached at 523-5252 or by e-mail
at mmoore@missoulian.com.