Pueblo group helping student graduate on time

Pueblo City School District 60 is below average when it comes to students graduating on time, but a group in Pueblo is helping.

As of 2013, the state average for graduating on time is 76.9 percent. D-60 is at 70.1 percent.

That’s when United Way of Pueblo County stepped in with their mentor program.

“The kids learn that somebody is caring about their grades, caring about their attendance, caring about their behaviors,” coordinator Valerie Ruybal said.

One of the students United Way helped out is Xochitl Hinojosa-Quintana. She said middle school classes were hard.

“I mostly had Fs, Ds and Cs in my classes,” she said.

She said not doing well in her classes ruined her confidence.

“I got scared, because when I got bad grades I would get lectures from my mom,” Quintana said.

Her mentor, Jenna Seddon, helped her.

“She has gotten her grades up, she seems happier all the time, she received an award from the school,” she said.

Seddon is one of more than 40 volunteers to help at Heaton and Roncolli Middle Schools, along with the Pueblo Academy of Arts.

Ruybal said mentors specifically help out middle school students.

“Middle school is a big transition time for a kids coming in, going through school. They are transitioning from grade school to middle school. There is more responsibility and there is a big difference,” she said

Ruybal said the program needs more volunteers to raise the on time graduation rate.

“We are looking for 40 more volunteers, because the mentors who were with the sixth-graders are now with the seventh-graders,’ she said.

As for Quintana, she said when she grows up she wants to be a police officer. That is something she said she wouldn’t have even though about if she didn’t have a mentor.

Pueblo County District 70 has an on-time graduation rate of 82.8 percent.