Mont Harmon Rises Out of the Ashes of Turnaround

Carbon School District Press Release

A few years ago, Mont Harmon Middle School was in trouble in terms of its academic performance. Its outcomes were bad enough that it became one of a number of ‘turnaround” schools in the state.

Recently, however, after four years of hard work, perseverance and change, the school was named one of the best turnaround achievers in Utah, gaining an A grade for their efforts.

“When we entered into this, we were a D school, and in fact were almost an E school in terms of academics,” said principal Seth Allred. “What needed to change was the culture of the school.”

Nearly 90 percent of schools that first entered Utah’s school turnaround program in 2015 have met exit criteria or have qualified for an extension, according to new data released by the Utah State Board of Education. Of the 26 schools in the program’s first cohort, 18 will exit after increasing at least one letter grade. An additional five qualify for an extension while two will remain in the program and one school has closed. Mont Harmon stands at the top of that list, having gained the most of any of the schools in the state.

Being one of many that are emerging takes nothing away, however, from Mont Harmon.

Utah’s School Turnaround and Leadership Development Act, passed by the Utah Legislature in 2015, aims to identify and provide outside resources to low-performing schools. Mont Harmon benefited from that by having two different consultants come in and help with their move to achieve more.

“I remember that first faculty meeting when I came here and we were named a turnaround school,” said Allred. “There were a lot of tears and a lot of frustration. Many teachers really had no idea how we were doing.”

Over the last three years, the school has changed from a culture of negativity and poor attitudes to one with pride, both among faculty and students. In that time, of the 26 teachers that taught at the school at the beginning, only 10 remain today.

“The best way to describe the culture here at Mont Harmon four years ago was one of apathy, for both the students and some of the teachers,” said Keith Palmer, who was a teacher at that time. “Many just didn’t care about the results of things going on. There were even teachers that were telling students that test scores didn’t matter. What placed us in turnaround was our low test scores. It was reflected in everything.”

Three years later, he sees things very differently.

“Things are much more positive now,” he said. “The big shift we made is that we became more positive. Kids try every day. It isn’t that they always reach their goal but they are trying harder than they ever were before. We are focused on the positive and the teachers are recognizing students for doing well behaviorally and academically. I love working here. It’s great.”

Another teacher, Brandon Stephens, has very much the same outlook. He is a four-year veteran of the school.

“When I first came here, the students spent more time trying to figure out how to get out of doing things than they did trying to do them,” he said. “Now that we are using mastery grading, a lot of students, now that that they see where we are going with assignments and projects, know where they are headed. They know what they need to do to get there. So, now the majority of our students are looking at ways they can reach those goals.”

He said that now rather than just talking about problems in the school, the faculty actually works toward solving problems and working to meet those challenges.

Students have also taken notice at how the school has changed. While those attending school now don’t really remember how it was before, some that are presently in high school saw the difference as they came up through the ranks.

Reagan Wright, now a student at Carbon High, said that when she was in sixth grade at Mont Harmon, everyone messed around and wasn’t really interested in growing academically. The next year, that began to change.

“When I started in sixth grade, I was at a fourth grade level in my reading,” stated Wright. “Two teachers helped me improve that. By the time I was in eighth grade, I had grown to a seventh grade reading level.”

Dax Humes, also a student at Carbon, said that in sixth grade no one seemed to care what you learned as long as you passed the tests. That’s because the teachers seemed only concerned about assessments. In seventh grade, he began to see that change.

“The rewards (Pirate Rewards) program where there were drawings (for performance and behavior) had a lot to do with that,” he said. “I think that kids wanted to show their parents they were doing well. That made it more public so if you were out there and doing well, you would be recognized for it. I think they tried a lot harder.”

He also said that about that same time teachers seemed to get more focused on students actually learning things. He said by his eighth grade year, he found that he was concentrating more on retention of information rather than just passing tests.

Kirsten Etzel, who was at the school in the seventh and eighth grades, and was one of the students when the school went from a junior high to a middle school, said that grades weren’t that important to students at the time.

“You were here to do whatever, just chill,” she said. “You just tried to get by. By eighth grade (the beginning of the turnaround year), you could see that students were trying to get better grades. The teachers made sure you learned information and didn’t forget it.”

She said that while she had always been a pretty good student, she found herself growing even more academically.

“I wanted to learn the information instead of just having to learn it,” she stated.

Allred said that while the school has achieved a lot, they are not done.

“When I first came here, the problem was the culture,” said Allred. “Looking at it at that time, the apathy of the kids, students failing on purpose to get even with teachers, many of whom had no idea at the time where their instruction stood, was a big problem.”

He said the feeling in the area at the beginning was that parents said their kids “survived” Mont Harmon to get to the high school. He said changing that culture was the first action that had to be taken. He explained that when they started Pirate Pride, the community worked with them positively to get things done with donations for the program. That was the big push that first two years.

“Now, the culture has changed and the students are wanting to learn” he stated. “Now, you see the growth mindset of teachers and students, and the present goal is to be one of the top performing schools in the state, and that is a good goal.”

To see a video that has been produced that features those that have seen the transition, go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0LGJ9-vp5w&feature=youtu.be