Yes We Can! Dothan spearheads effort to improve Dothan’s public school system

“Yes We Can! Dothan” is more than just a catch phrase or battle cry. It is the message those involved in this new education movement want to give to the community at large.

“We’ve tried to relate a good community with good schools,” said Twyla Williams, director of communications for Yes We Can! Dothan. “We have done this through 47 community in-volvement meetings that we have held since July 2008. We’ve had at least 1,000 people in Dothan attend the meetings, which were held in various locations around the city. We purposely didn’t meet in schools. We met where the people were.”

Those meetings were held at churches, civic groups and a multitude of other locations. They all carried the same message.

“We wanted to find out what they (the public) wanted in their schools and in their community,” Mrs. Williams continued. “People need to be concerned about our public schools.

“So many things are impacted by good schools - crime rate, economic development, quality of life. If we want a better Dothan, we have to do better.”

Of major concern to the organizers of Yes We Can! Dothan is the high drop-out rate in the Dothan City School System.

Seventy-five to 80 percent of all students within the city limits of Dothan attend a public school. Of that number, Mrs. Williams says 30 percent drop out of school.

“We’ve got to keep the kids in school,” Mrs. Williams said. “Our drop-out rate of 30 percent is too high. A lot of that comes from apathy.”

Organizations, like Yes We Can! Dothan, are working to make the educational process more meaningful for the students.

“We’re working hard to make our schools better to make our city better,” Mrs. Williams said.

To accomplish that goal, however, will take more than just wanting to make it so. It will require the support of the community to make it happen. And it is that support, says Mrs. Williams, that will give an indication as to the success of Yes We Can! Dothan.

“We measure success by the fact we have more community involvement,” Mrs. Williams said. “Today, we have more churches and businesses involved in the Adopt-A-School Program than we have had in the past.”

Community involvement is not the only measure of success. Businesses and industries looking to locate to an area will traditionally check one key gauge - the academic scores of the local students. They are looking for an educated work force.

“We will measure our results by the test scores,” Mrs. Williams continued. “PARCA (Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama) will compile the data about our schools. We will be able to measure our improvement.”

The Dothan initiative is based on a model developed in Mobile.

“The Yes We Can! Mobile effort took five years to show improvement (in the public schools),” Mrs. Wil-liams said. “Morris Sling-luff (co-chair of Yes We Can! Dothan) believes we can do it in three years.”

The Yes We Can! Dothan effort has received a broad level of community support. Funding support has come from the Wiregrass Foundation, the Dothan Area Chamber of Commerce and the Dothan Education Foundation.

It has also been embraced by Dr. Sam Nichols and the Dothan City School System. Mrs. Williams says that broad base of support will provide a solid foundation for the education movement.

“In this effort, we try to tie people together to get the community involved in our schools,” Mrs. Williams said. “We work with the school system to do what we can to make our schools better.”

Community involvement holds the key. With that in mind, the Yes We Can! Dothan Education Movement has created 13 advocacy groups that will work to strengthen the city’s public school system. Each advocacy group is to meet at least three to four times per year and give quarterly progress reports to the Yes We Can! Dothan Executive Committee.

Those groups are: Local Elected Officials, Acceptance and Inclusiveness, Active Parents, Civic Organizations, Faith-Based Entities, Philanthropic Groups (Foundations), Continuous Improvement, Youth Involvement, Partnerships with High Education, The School Board, Active Business Community, Media Coverage and Better Funding-Better Schools.

Citizens interested in getting involved in the Yes We Can! Dothan Education Movement can get more information by contacting Twyla Williams at 836-0217, ext. 105. Or by email at .