By Jason Sargent, Principal
St. Ignatius 6-12 School
School District #28

St. Ignatius is a rural community located on the Flathead Indian Reservation at the southern end of Western Montana’s Mission Valley. Surrounded by a spectacular natural beauty, the community is characterized by great cultural diversity. St. Ignatius is a K-12 district with approximately 550 students. The school population is comprised of about 60% Native American students, with various other backgrounds making up the remaining 40%. Just over 60% of the students qualify for free or reduced-cost lunches. About 16% are IDEA eligible. Of our students with disabilities, around 25% of them are considered “Other Health Impaired” and 50% have specific learning disabilities.

Like every other school in the United States, we are busy working to meet and implement school reform efforts, primarily the requirements of No Child Left Behind. We spend countless hours on school climate, educational goals, curriculum, reform models, improvement grants, staff development, and many strategic action plans for every area of our school. In short, we spend a vast amount of time working on annual yearly progress for a governmental bureaucracy that is nationally not only proving to have forgotten about what is important in education, but also how to properly fund ideas it feels are important.

During this time in 2002/2003, while we were trying to implement and meet the many strenuous goals of the governmental mandates, an individual approached me about helping a student transition from school to work. This was all part of the WISER Grant (one of the Rural Institute’s Transition Projects) that we had decided to take part in starting in the fall of 2002. While implementing this grant, I was introduced to Don Dubuque and Marie Westfall. It wasn’t necessarily the program that captured my interest - it was the excitement these two people displayed about helping other people. Don and Marie really taught me about a vital part of education that, up until then, I had not given much attention. They both had a passion for helping others, and they showed me what that passion means to kids with significant support needs.

To implement the program, I was asked to follow a subscribed plan, I was shown the expected procedure, and I was given a deadline. We had to get one of our students a job before graduation in order for her to be given an opportunity for future employment. This student used a wheelchair; she had many severe handicapping conditions. She was one of my favorite people in the whole world - she had a big smile for everyone and the friendliest disposition a human being could ever possess. I was willing to do whatever it took to assure this girl’s future. I guess I had a choice: take a few hours and make a difference in someone’s life, or hope that someone else would take care of it. My biggest worry was that if we did nothing, this young lady would be sitting at home after graduation rather than starting a new life giving what she had to offer. Don and Marie taught me how, why, and what to do to accomplish our goals. We had some great people from the businesses downtown and the surrounding area who allowed us time to share this plan for outside employment; we saw it as a great opportunity. After presenting the student’s picture résumé (Portfolio) to about five different places, the break came. Rod’s Harvest Foods offered this young lady a job of facing (arranging) and dusting shelves, both proven to increase sales. She received a wheelchair that would lift her high enough to reach the shelves, and our job coach, Kelly Glover, went to work training this person for the position.

The process meant finding a match with what the student had to offer and what an employer needed done. We conducted a lot of on-site tours to see how different organizations worked. We visited places of interest and asked if we could tour their businesses. People were happy to show us around and we got to see, firsthand, if there were any unmet needs. We were able to build a rapport with employers and list the possibilities. We then followed up later with Portfolio presentations and specific ideas in mind for possible employment opportunities for a particular student. Every business owner with whom we met was very helpful and willing to explore the possibilities. The Portfolio presentation was an opportunity for us to explore and really take a good look at what our potential employee had to offer. I felt good about what we were doing and why we were doing it.

We are currently working to implement this process with all students who would qualify. We are working to develop a map of when to implement the program (when to begin vocational exploration, connect with adult agencies, and focus on getting that paid job) and what businesses in our area will help us meet our goals. Once we have this information, our plan is to use it at all Individualized Educational Program meetings. We want to make sure every student has the opportunity for future employment.

There is nothing I enjoy more about what I do than being with and working with people like Don Dubuque and the Project WISER team who just want to make people feel good about who they are and what they aspire to be. As an administrator, I often get caught in the role of disciplinarian or in the job of churning out the paperwork for government bureaucracies. Working with Don and Marie and placing our first student successfully made me realize education is first about people helping and caring about people, that is what is most important. This project has given me: a vision for what life can look like for students with disabilities after they graduate, direction about how to prepare these students while they are in school, and information about how to coordinate supports for them as they transition from school to adult life.