Public Servant Spotlight — Bobby Plaskett: ‘We’re helping a lot of kids’

Posted on Wednesday, December 10, 2014 at 9:47 am

By Daniel Sherrier

Editor

 

Some students need a different environment. And at Caroline High School, they get it in the Diversified Studies Program.

Bobby Plaskett, director, has been with the program since almost the beginning, when it was housed in a trailer with three maybe-functional computers behind the high school 17 years ago. He said former Caroline superintendent Stanley Jones conceived of the program as a way to reach out to at-risk students.

It’s grown a bit since then. Re-branded as the Diversified Studies Program five years ago, Plaskett and his team serve roughly 250 to 300 students a year in a room with more than two-dozen computers inside the high school, and not all of those students are necessarily at-risk.

The goal remains the same—to ensure more Caroline students graduate on-time with their classmates.

“It just got bigger and bigger,” Plaskett said.

Students enroll in the Diversified Studies Program for a number of reasons, such as disruptive behavior, struggles with a particular course, or a unique family situation that calls for more flexible arrangements. Referrals come from teachers, guidance counselors, administrators, and even parents and the students themselves, though each candidate is screened carefully prior to admittance.

“We bring kids in here who are maybe struggling in a

traditional setting, (but) not necessarily,” Plaskett said. “We’ve had some of the top students in the school come in here and take online courses. But they come in and say, ‘I’ve never done this much work in my life.’”

Though the occasional freshman or sophomore might enroll, priority placement often goes to upperclassmen.

“We really focus on graduation. We want these kids to get on-track,” Plaskett said. “We really try to get them to graduate from high school, and they’ve got to work hard at it. And nobody gives anything away in here, but it’s a second opportunity for some of these kids.”

He added, “Helping kids, that’s what all teachers do, but our big focus is trying to get these kids to graduate on-time.”

Students take online courses, and CHS teachers supplement with direct instruction. Students are assigned stringent goals they have to meet by the end of each week, and they work independently toward that end and seek assistance as needed.

Plaskett focuses on the life and Earth sciences, while Rylene Mickleberry teaches English and Ray Carver teaches history. Rosemary Hedrick has been the program’s secretary for 14 years.

Math is seldom taught in the Diversified Studies classroom. Plaskett explained that they tried it years ago, but the nature of the subject doesn’t lend itself to independent study.

“It just doesn’t work. … It’s hard to look at a computer and learn it,” especially at the more advanced levels, he said.

Diversified Studies offers credit recovery for students who failed a class but passed the Virginia Standards of Learning test for the same subject. Such students can take an abbreviated—but still challenging—version of the course to earn that credit for graduation. Then they can take a half-credit elective for the remainder of the semester.

“We have two half-credit general science and general history (courses). They kind of help prepare them for their next science or their next history,” Plaskett said.

While passing the course is important, Plaskett ultimately wants to make sure students learn. If a student fails a quiz, for example, a Diversified Studies teacher will re-teach the material.

“I want them to learn it. A lot of time, it takes repetition and a second explanation for them to understand it and for them to really get their hands around it, so we do that. It works,” he said.

Plaskett was originally a physical education major at Virginia Commonwealth University, and his first 17 years of teaching were in Hanover County, first at John Gandy Elementary School and later at Liberty Middle School.

He then tried corporate life. It didn’t take.

“I came scrambling back to education after being in that world for a couple of years. They had this opportunity here,” Plaskett said. “I still thank Stanley Jones to this day for giving me this opportunity to come here and work, and I love this program because we’re really reaching out to a lot of kids now, … and I think we’re helping a lot of kids.”

The difference between teaching younger children and high school teenagers is like “night and day,” he said.

High school students “just have more on their plate,” he said. “They have more problems. They’re trying to establish an identity.”

However, he sees similarities between the kids he taught in the Ashland area and the Caroline teenagers he works with now. In particular, both student bodies represent a mix of racial demographics and socioeconomics, and he enjoys that diversity.

“We just have a real diversified group of kids here. I like that,” he said.

Study tip

Plaskett emphasized time-management and “understanding the importance of what they’re doing” in school.

“These kids are pulled in so many directions,” he said. “If you’re working until 10 or 11 o’clock at night (on a school night), I think you’re just headed for a problem. … You’ve got to get some sleep at night.”

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