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Wells City Council backs community involvement plan

BY ELAINE SWANSON - Correspondent
Friday, September 26, 2008 12:15 PM PDT

WELLS - City officials plan to support Wells Combined School Principal Leslie Lotspeich's proposal to help failing students by encouraging them to become more interested and involved in the community.

“Every study shows that participation in extracurricular activities and community endeavors leads to student success,” Lotspeich said at this week's city council meeting. “Yet, we see that three-fourths of failing students are not involved anywhere in the school or community. Participation is vital to success, and a successful citizen is valuable to the community.”

“The city can become involved at many levels. Any city resident can visit with at least one student occasionally and ask, ‘How are you doing in school. I'm interested to know. Are you getting all your assignments in? What are your interests?' Sometimes all a child needs is to know people care.

“I would ask for some city government presence at our quarterly academic assessment meetings at the end of every nine-week grading period,” Lotspeich said. “The Student Council is setting a goal where 80 percent of the student body has a grade of 80 percent or better in every class. We plan to have a party to celebrate our success when that goal is met,” the principal said.

Mayor Rusty Tybo said the city would certainly encourage students to participate in the community. “We could buy plaques and other incentives for student achievement,” Tybo said.

Lotspeich added, “We want feedback from the city. We don't want to be just handing out gold stars for living and breathing. We want to see real academic growth and achievement.”

City Manager Jolene Supp said, “The city could sponsor some citizenship awards, and some community involvement awards. We hope that student involvement in the community will lead to a spirit of volunteerism and life-long community involvement.”

Councilman John Riddle gave Lotspeich kudos.

“I want to thank you personally for targeting students who aren't doing well in school. I'm going to become a part of your program,” Riddle said.

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