Every high school senior should aspire to be a college student.

That has been the prevailing attitude for some time in the Tahoma School District, and likely the community, but Superintendent Mike Maryanksi realized a few years ago that approach was not serving the needs of all students who walk away with a diploma from Tahoma High School.

To that end, the Tahoma School Board asked district staff to form a committee to evaluate how the district should help kids become not only career ready, but college ready, or as the administrative team at Tahoma High has dubbed it: future ready.

The committee, which consisted of nearly 50 members, first met June 6.

Larry Destro, who has six children with four in the district now, was invited by Tahoma High Principal Terry Duty to participate.

“The process was really, No. 1 to understand the current situation as it relates to our public education system, K-12, and recognition of the fact that they data they shared with is that upon graduation, almost all parents said, ‘Yeah, my kid’s going to college,” Destro said. “But, at the end of six years, roughly 40 percent had gone on to get an AA or BA degree. The question that Mike raised and that we raised is, ‘Are we really addressing the needs of that other 60 percent?’”

With 60 percent of Tahoma High graduates going on to a two-year or four-year college, Destro said, it’s important to note the district does a great job getting kids ready to get accepted as well as the fact that college is still a worthwhile pursuit for kids.

“We have a really strong program for kids who want to go to college,” said Tahoma High Assistant Principal Diane Fox. “Those classes are laid out. We do a really go job of sending our kids to college. Only 40 percent that go actually finish in six years. What is life like for them when they drop out? What we know is No. 1, that debt doesn’t go away.”

There are, however, alternatives to the traditional four-year concept that many students feel they have to strive for and parents believe their kids should aim for.

“We just wanted to know if we were meeting the needs of all the students, were we being inclusive,” Destro said. “Everyone who participated … had the same ‘aha!’ moment. Everyone’s mindset was that everyone should be going to college when in fact there are many alternatives which provide a great income without creating the burden of a four-year degree which may not be for everyone.”

Destro said he was the first one in his family to go to college and he felt that it was important for all of his children to pursue a four-year degree, as well.

But, he said there were two things that were eye-opening for him.

First, a four-year psychology degree comes with a six-figure debt load for a recent graduate while a starting salary is less than $30,00 a year. And while money isn’t the most important thing, Destro noted, it figures into the decision when considering what the most viable career option is for a high school senior.

“So, we came up with the concept of getting children future-ready,” Destro said. “Part of it, too, is making the students aware. What does it look like on the other side. Let’s get the degree where the demand is and the demand has shifted.”

For example, Destro said, officials from The Boeing Co. told the committee there are openings and not enough qualified people to fill them. That is a viable option so the question is how can the district help guide kids whose interests and skills match the demand for jobs at Boeing.

Fox said the district wants to do more to help kids be prepared for life after graduation.

“We can’t afford, the nation can’t afford, kids in their 20s who don’t know what to do with their lives,” she said. “We want you to have a really solid, viable plan for what your future is going to look like and you want to know why you made that plan.”

This realization that in order to best prepare teens for life after high school staff had to know where those students were going was what drove the start of the process that has developed into this shift of mind-set.

“Future ready is almost eyes wide open into the future, know what the world’s landscape looks like … so that families know what’s best for their students,” Fox said. “One of the things our staff has done, it has really examined what structures are in place in school. One thought is how do we celebrate graduates? How are we celebrating with equal air time, with equal power kids who choose multiple pathways.”

She cited an example of a student who was recognized at the senior awards ceremony in May for his progress into a career as a welder. Fox said she heard one of the top students in the class who was planning to attend a top tier university say under his breath, “That’s cool.”

“We want to move to a system where we recognize that there are a lot of pathways to life and you need to choose a pathway that fits for you,” Fox said. “What’s the first thing we ask high school seniors in the spring? ‘Where are you going to college?’ The fundamental shift is (asking), ‘What’s next for you and why did you choose that?’”

While the shift in thinking has begun at the district and among the members of the committee, Destro said the change in mindset needs to happen more broadly.

“It’s a community effort that’s going to be required to help our kids, our students achieve their life-long goals,” Destro said. “Too often I think we’ve sloughed it off to the school system, we’ve sloughed it off to someone else. This is not merely a high school thing. Introduce sooner rather than later the concepts of thinking about the long term goals of what you want to achieve.”

Destro said he hopes the district brings students into the process of creating this shift in mindset as this is only the phase one of moving from a college-ready approach to a future ready approach.

The committee made its presentation to the school board at its Aug. 28 meeting.

“I shared the parental perspective, each of us shared a different perspective,” Destro said. “They listened very carefully, then at the end, one by one they made their comments. Most of it was really commendatory. They said this is the kind information that (they) really need. It dovetailed with other concepts they’re looking at. It looks like there’s a bigger picture out there and this is a piece of the puzzle to address larger needs.”

What happens next depends on what the board chooses to do with the information, Destro said, but “I think they’re doing a very thorough job of taking it on.”

Fox said the shift is happening at Tahoma High through the way teachers frame questions about the future to students to help them connect their goals that make sense.

“We’ve got a great career counselor on staff … who can help open doors,” she said. “We’re looking at our we’re doing our exit plans, our viable transition plans, at having our students have real conversations that are focused with their parents. We’re here to be dream makers, so, if kids come from families where college is the preferred vision, we find ways to get our kids ready for college.”

Still, that doesn’t mean it will be easy for moms and dads in this community to change the mindset.

“The biggest shift of all will be for parents, because we were all raised that college is the pathway to success,” Fox said. “But with the economy we know that college is not the pathway to success. We’ve got to change our mental models.”

What’s important is getting students hooked to a path toward employment that suits them whether that’s enlisting in the military, a two-year program at Renton Technical College in nursing or the culinary arts, an IT certification program at Green River Community College or an engineering degree from Stanford, that way when they wake up the day after graduation they have a plan in place.

“I’m excited about it because I want all of our students to feel like Tahoma cares about where they go next,” Fox said.