School pays students to come to class

CINCINNATI - While some local high schools are charging students to take part in extra curricular activities, Dohn Community High School is turning that idea on its head. It's actually paying students to show up.

On Monday attendance was up at Dohn Community High School and it's for a reason you wouldn't expect: cash.

Dohn Community High School Principal Ramone Davenport was pleased with his school's turnout, but it wasn't always this successful.

"All you kept hearing was 'Well the reason I can't come to school is because I don't have bus fair or the reason I can't come to school is because I have to work', you know those types of deals," Davenport said.

So Principal Davenport started something new. He teamed up with private donors and the Easter Seals Work Resource Center to offer an incentive.

Seniors who show up five days a week, on time and behave well will get $25.00 every Friday. Underclassmen will get $10.

"You know we have students who we haven't seen in a week or two coming to school, so that tells me that this incentive that we're trying is actually working," Davenport explained.

The school has about 170 students and on average only 84 percent showed up on a daily basis last year. The state minimum is 93 percent. The school was in Academic Emergency last year and its graduation rate was at 14 percent.

Senior Dominic Trotter believes the incentive may just get his peers to come to school to increase that rate.

"I think the program will probably increase the attendance a little bit more, you see money on the table and times are hard and they'll probably attend school more often," Trotter said.

Dohn Community High School is a dropout recovery charter school. It's for students who need a fresh start, who may have not been successful at a public school.

"Most people don't have jobs and most of them be going through stuff at home so I know they'd be happy to have some money in their pocket," explained Senior Shamunda Lipscomb.

However, officials say it's a bigger picture here than just money. It's about letting the students know that they still care.

"I think some people see this as we're paying students to come to school, I think what we're doing is replacing something that's been missing in their life," said Debbie Smith, Director of Youth Services for Easter Seals. "We're replacing that by showing that we care about them, we want them to get that diploma and we want them to move on."