Quincy Ingram, 18, a 12th-grader who came to Mahoning Valley Community School from Chaney High School, studies Japanese art as part of his credit recovery. ...Staff photo / Chris McBride

YOUNGSTOWN — A quiet storm brews inside a young student as he becomes increasingly frustrated over schoolwork. Eventually, it builds to an outburst.

Not knowing where to place his anger, he considers throwing classroom items, pushing over a table, kicking off his shoes — any outlet to express the emotional struggle within.

In the face of threats of physical violence and curses, Mahoning Valley Community School staff do not waiver,

This moment is handled with patience by five-year teacher Kelly Dangler, an aide and intervention assistant, who uses de-escalation tactics to cool the situation, remove the child from the root of his aggravation and attempt to talk the student through his emotions.

MVCS Superintendent Jennifer Merritt said staffers rely on their trauma-informed training to bring the student to a calm that allows him or her to reintegrate back into the class.

Back in the classroom, Dangler next focuses on tending to another student, previously engaged in his math work but now hiding under his desk to find solace from the noise.

The student having the outburst this particular morning, meanwhile, is released to a parent.

This outcome, Merritt says, is a rarity.

“We normally return them back to class. Because of our relationship with the parent and them knowing how hard we work, she offered to pick him up,” Merritt said. “The next day you can’t continue to use their trauma behaviors against them. We always have to start fresh.”

Principal Taylor Dangler said it was the first occurrence in a year for the student — who has shown academic progress at the school at 2725 Gibson St.

MVCS, sponsored by the Office of School Sponsorship at the Ohio Department of Education, is intended to serve youth who need an opportunity to get on track with their academics, is open enrollment and serves students in grades 7-12.

There’s also an elementary class component, which teaches kindergarten through fourth grade. Merritt said an emphasis is placed on teaching them behavioral support and working with them on intervention.

Mahoning County Juvenile Court Judge Theresa Dellick established MVCS (formerly Mahoning Valley High School) in 2008 after gaining support from local superintendents to reroute students facing expulsion to the community school.

“As a juvenile judge, I’ve seen many students come to me after being expelled for their offenses,” Dellick said. “For these students, an education is the best and surest way out of crime or poverty.”

A student’s likelihood of falling into this cycle increases after only one suspension, according to research conducted by Rice University’s Houston Education Research Consortium.

HOW IT WORKS

The Mahoning Valley Community School, located inside Woodrow Wilson Alternative School, is a public school that provides dropout recovery. The entire staff uses a trauma-informed approach.

Merritt said being trauma informed means recognizing that students have certain experiences that shape them, and knowing how to react.

For students at MVCS, a wide variety of factors has been shaping their lives.

“It requires professional development from someone with a background in trauma. The juvenile court has several people that help provide this training,” said Merritt.

The MVCS staff undergoes training to be prepared in areas such as mental health first aid training. This teaches staff how to report, respond and identify children with mental illness. Annual training is provided.

These training sessions teach staff members de-escalation during student interactions, restraint methods for dealing with a child without harm, along with techniques for dealing with aggressive behavior.

Trauma training helps staff understand the neurobiology of trauma and how it develops in a child’s brain once they’re exposed to something very unsettling.

“It informs teachers to understand how their brain is wired and how there’s an expectation of danger in that child’s head,” Merritt said.

NEEDS AND EXPERIENCE

During intake meetings with parents, Merritt said teachers participate to discuss specific issues with which a student may struggle, and talk about the program itself. This allows parents the opportunity to have a say in how their child is treated.

Every aspect of the school from curriculum down to classroom structures is assessed based on the population of students, and their unique needs and experience, she said.

“We thought this was the best way to understand their background,” Merritt said. “We consider every factor from poverty to trauma to build our entire program around them.”

Today, 130 students from Mahoning, Trumbull and Columbiana counties are enrolled at MVCS.

To help ensure that every student gets the needed one-on-one time, classrooms do not exceed 25 students. Each class is provided with an intervention specialist to provide added support.

Classes are broken into four, 85-minute blocks to help ensure students are given adequate time to understand the concepts being taught, avoiding a scenario where a student leaves the classroom uncertain of the lesson plan.

Students build their semesters around selecting four classes, including one elective.

“This model means fewer transitions throughout the day — switching classes can be chaotic so we switch four times a day,” Merritt said.

To keep the school’s dropout recovery designation, MVCS is required to have 75 percent of its students be a grade behind.

“We chose that designation because there was a gap in kids being served here,” Merritt said.

One block may place a freshman studying English I in a class with an older student trying to recover lost credits.

For students needing credit recovery, the school has a credi-flex program allowing students to recover academic credits they lost or didn’t get.

Merritt explained: “Say a ninth grader failed English. We’d have them take a proficiency test. If they get 80 percent or above and show competency, they earn the credits.”

BACK ON TRACK

Keelin Morris joined the staff as an aide two years after graduating from MVCS in 2018.

Once an East High School student, Morris struggled to find his identity among 400 to 500 other students — an internal conflict he masked by acting out.

“I really wanted to fit in,” Morris said. “By fitting in, that leads to me disrespecting teachers all the time and being the class clown. I got expelled in the first grading period of the new year, nothing had changed with my behavior. I was constantly in trouble.”

Before joining MVCS, Morris said he had heard the school had a reputation for being a “jail school.” But his perception changed when put into an environment where he felt teachers were able to place a better focus on his emotional and educational needs.

“My eighth-grade year I wasn’t acting out as much, but ninth grade I was so nervous being around the bigger kids, I acted out a little more,” Morris said.

Morris credits the teaching staff with keeping him focused. Rather than teachers writing him up, Morris said they took time to understand and calm him before allowing him to continue his classwork.

“We were connected like a father / son bond and it helped me a lot,” he said. “We had a mother-son relationship. They were important for me.”

It was a level of care that influenced him to pursue a career in education

“I saw how the teachers here spoke to us, worked with us even after we graduated, and saw how they are with kids. I want to have that kind of bond with students,” Morris said.

After a year-and-a-half, Morris was offered the chance to return to East — but declined, feeling that MVCS was better fit for him.

In his second year as an aide, he’s already built relationships with students similar to the crucial ones he developed as a student.

“One of my kids didn’t take his pills, which caused him to act out of character. We sat and talked with him — eventually we got him to do his work again,” Morris said.

The process can be effective . It just takes a special group of educators willing to endure the challenges that come with the job.

“We have teachers that have been with me for 12 years, a principal for 15 years. We just don’t have a huge turnover. It goes to show the level of commitment our staff has,” Merritt said.

HOPING TO GROW

Currently MVCS shares space inside Woodrow Wilson Alternative School but Merritt and Dellick said there are plans to expand into its own location.

The expansion will be funded by grants and a $300,000 boost from the Mahoning County commissioners using American Rescue Plan funds. Commissioners will present the check during an event Monday morning.

Even now, MVCS is exceeding standards in graduation rate compared with similar schools in the state.

Due to the varying credit status of students at MVCS, some are graduating between four and eight years.

Students’ graduation percentage for four years is at 77.1 percent; 60.3 percent in five; 70.4 percent in six; 63.3 percent in seven; 43.1 percent in eight, according to the Ohio Department of Education.

The school’s cumulative graduation rate sits at 63.8 percent, about 21.8 percentage points above the average for dropout recovery program schools in Ohio.

cmcbride@tribtoday.com