With worsening attendance rates, the school district is trying to do everything in their power to encourage students to come to school.
The school district has a 31.8 percent average of chronically absent students. This means that 31.8 percent of the students in the district miss two or more days a month. The high school alone has a 40.7 percent average of chronically absent students and has the worst attendance rate out of the entire district.
Superintendent Wade Whitney has noticed these attendance problems and feels that the issue is a concern.
“Attendance is a concern in our school district, specifically student attendance,” Whitney said.
Whitney noticed that these problems have gotten worse since COVID and he is concerned about these issues and feels that we need to do better.
“There is a direct correlation between academic success and attendance. Just think how much better we could be if our attendance was even at the state average,” Whitney said.
Our state average attendance rate is at 23.9 percent. This is averaged between the 140 districts in the state.
Whitney plans to solve these problems by doing a better job bringing attention to them and making videos highlighting the importance of attendance. He is also looking into new strategies to help boost the attendance rates. These solutions are currently underway and can be found on the district website.
Principal Chip Menton sees these attendance issues and plans to start heavily addressing them during the second semester with parents and students.
“I can tell this first semester that we do have an attendance issue,” Menton said.
He realizes that this issue is not awful but does need to be addressed before it becomes worse. Many students think that they can miss school and just do their work online, but Menton sees that this will have a negative impact on their future.
“If you’re not in school, the harder it is to get through your classes, and the more you’re here, the easier it is for you to be able to keep up and do what you have to do to pass and get through school to move on and do whatever it is you want to do after high school,” Menton said.
He has met with administration to discuss and make sure that this does not become more of an ongoing problem.
Menton is not the only administrator who sees these issues. Assistant Principal Brittany Brown also sees attendance issues and feels that it needs to be addressed. She sees lots of tardies or absences of students who want to just do their work online.
“The biggest thing we have to do is reprogram society’s idea that being in school everyday in person isn’t that important or that it can be optional,” Brown said. “You need to be here. There’s no better way to be successful than coming to school and being in class.”
She feels that there is a direct tie between success and attendance and that the students need to be held accountable. Brown addressed that our average daily attendance is at 90 percent, but needs to be around 95-100 percent.
State laws require that students should not have more than 12 unexcused absences per year. The school is required to report unexcused absences to the attendance officer beginning at five unexcused absences. For any unexcused absences, students may make up the work, but a zero will be given for the work.
Even though she feels strongly about this, she knows that the ultimate responsibility goes back to the parents and students.
“It ultimately goes back to the student and their parent or guardian and making sure that they get up on time, they have transportation to school, and that the expectation is started in their home that it’s important for you to get up and go to school everyday,” Brown said.
Brown plans to work on this problem by checking reports, calling parents, advertising the attendance videos by digital media and ultimately being proactive instead of reactive. These strategies are already in action and are being implemented to prevent absences.
Teachers have also noticed these issues in their classrooms. English teacher Jamey Wachsman has noticed this in her classes.
“We do have an attendance problem in our school because students don’t have a commitment to their studies,” Wachsman said.
She has noticed that the students do not see the value and think that they can just make up all of their work instead of coming to school. Wachsman has watched, students scramble to make up their work and has noticed that their grades are lower than what they would be if they had better attendance.
Another teacher that has noticed this problem is theater teacher Joy Smith. She noticed that these issues are worse than they have been her whole teaching career. She assigns a lot of group projects, but the attendance problems makes these assignments difficult to handle because not every student is present. She feels that this affects the quality of the lessons and gets very hesitant when assigning group work.
“It’s caused us to water down the quality of the lessons that we teach,” Smith said.
Although she sees these problems and knows they need to be acknowledged, she thinks that nothing will change until they take away student’s credits.
“Nothing is going to change until they start making sure that kid’s credits are affected by their attendance issues,” Smith said.
Although there are a lot of chronically absent students, there are a few students who are passionate about their attendance. Freshman Lexie Mickovski has not missed an entire day of school so far this year. She only misses when necessary, such as for appointments or sports. Mickovski feels like this has not made a huge impact on her education but thinks it is helpful to not have a lot of work to try and finish.
“It’s nice to not have make-up work,” Mickovski said.
She keeps her good attendance by trying to schedule appointments outside of school hours and by making an effort to be here. She plans to try and continue to have good attendance in the future.
Another student that is passionate about her attendance is sophomore Matti Loftin. She does not miss much school and only misses when she cannot avoid it, such as when she is sick or has doctor’s appointments. Loftin feels that this has a positive impact on her grades.
“I try not to miss much to have good grades,” Loftin said.
She plans to try to keep up her good attendance in the future by making sure she is here and scheduling appointments around school days.
One of the students who is considered chronically absent is Senior Chase Allgood. He misses school around every two days and does not really have a certain reason he does not come to school.
“I just don’t come, I ain’t really got no reason,” Allgood said.
He feels that this has affected his grades and plans on trying to miss less school in the future.
Overall, George County is working with students and parents to improve attendance rates and become a better school.