Gary West Side’s grad rate higher, but still trails

The Gary West Side Leadership Academy graduated 64.7% of its seniors last year, relegating it to the bottom tier of traditional high schools, but up more than 6 points from 2019.

School officials praised the increase while a member of the district’s school advisory board criticized the rate as “unacceptable.”

Gary charter schools fared better with 21st Century Charter School’s rate at 94.4%; Gary Lighthouse, 85.2%; Steel City Charter, 80% and Thea Bowman Academy, 79.8%.

The now-defunct Roosevelt College and Career Academy posted the lowest rate of 57.8%. The school closed last year.

“Even in the midst of a pandemic, our graduation rates increased,” said Paige McNulty, manager of the Gary Community School Corp. “While we have more work to do, we consider this a significant accomplishment and concrete evidence that our District is moving in the right direction.”

Statewide, the graduation rate was 87.7%. white students graduated at a 90% rate, while Blacks were at 80%.

West Side’s 2019 low graduation rate came under scrutiny by the state Distressed Unit Appeal Board last year. The 2019 rate of 58.5% fell nearly 28 points from 2018 when it was 80%.

School officials blamed the drop on an inattentive guidance counseling office and the lack of credit recovery programs. McNulty pledged to reverse the outcome.

She said West Side incoming freshmen would be assigned the same guidance counselor for their four years in school.

“We will follow kids from their freshman to senior year,” she said last year. “They weren’t tracking kids who were leaving during the school year and seeing where they went. That hurt the cohort.”

Gary has been managed by MGT Consulting since a state takeover in 2017. The Distressed Unit Appeal Board, which oversees the district, originally focused on finances. Now, its members are calling for academic accountability as well.

School board advisory committee president Robert Buggs said West Side’s graduation rate plummeted after MGT arrived and the school board lost its authority.

“We’re going backward,” he said. “That’s unacceptable. The focus was never on academics. It was on MGT getting bonuses and trying to fix the financial problem.”