News Success Center: 'Rigorous,' guided study hall helps struggling VSHS students

It’s not your father’s study hall.

The new class at Vinton-Shellsburg is unlikely to be like any of yours yours, either.

As Mr. Jim Mochal supervises the class, he walks among students sitting on the floor, and groups of two or more students talking together.

Those once-forbidden study hall practices, Mochal told the V-S School Board on Monday, are good things.

A former teacher at the V-S West Campus (alternative high school), Mochal oversees students in what is now called the Student Success Center. The Success Center is a strictly supervised study hall designed to help students who are struggling in a class to make sure they pass it.

And, Mochal told the board members, the class has a 96.7 percent success rate of students passing subjects.

How it works

If a student is receiving a grade of C- or below in any class, the teacher of that class refers the student to Mr. Mochal.  He offers one-on-one support, as well as helps keep students on task during that class time.

“As a former teacher at the alternative school, he has a lot of background in a lot of classes as well as a lot of background in instructional strategies,” said Superintendent Mary Jo Hainstock. “This allows us to add another level of intervention.

Nearly 250 students will be referred to Mr. Mochal throughout the school year.

One of the big parts of the Success Center is interaction with parents. Mochal will call or email parents to let them know their child is struggling in at least one class. He will then follow up via phone, email or a letter to update parents on a student’s progress.

“Parental contact is one of the biggest things, along with the coaching,” Mochal said, adding that he has communicated with parents nearly 1,250 times this school year.

“I about sprained my arm patting myself on the back when one parent told me I had contacted them too much,” Mochal told the board.  

One of the few complaints Mochal has heard about the Success Center is: “My parents yell at me more.”

But, he said, he always tells the parents about the classes in which a student is doing well, along with the areas in which that student is struggling.

“Students have told me they trust you,” said school board member Kathy Van Steenhuyse.

“They trust I am going to call home and not just rip on them the whole night,” replied Mochal. “I will be as positive as I can.”

There are two tiers of study hall at VSHS. The traditional study hall, supervised Tami Hansen, is for those students who are doing well in all of their classes.

“She keeps students on task, and checks their grades once per week,” explained Mochal. “Anyone at a C- or below comes to me.”

Mochal’s reputation for success has even students who are doing well asking for permission to attend his class to get a little extra help.

This is good for the students doing well, said Mochal, and also offers an opportunity for those who are doing well to help the others. It’s basically peer-to-peer mentoring, although Mochal says the students would not label it as such.

“There is a lot of cooperative learning,” he said. “I try to not get in the way.”

The average class size is 15-20 for most sessions, although there are nearly 30 in the first-hour class.

Mochal’s position is a new one at VS, funded with grants from the At-Risk program. The district, said Hainstock, is in the process of applying for those funds to continue the program.