This year the attendance policy has been tightened up, said Assistant Principal Jeanne Jones. The new policy will give a warning at the fifth tardy, lost of privileges, including no extracurricular activities, at eighth instead of tenth tardy each quarter, and a parent, student, assistant principal meeting at the tenth tardy instead of the fifteenth, said Jones.
The Lost of Privileges list restricts student’s extracurricular activity, banning them from participation in athletics, school activities such as dances, hour lunch, 18 year old contracts, and clubs and groups such as drama and Mustang Minds.
When looking into the number of tardies SDA had last year, Jones and Assistant Principal Ryan Yee noted that because the number was reset at every quarter, there was 36 opportunities for students to be tardy before receiving any attention. This discovery led them to “tighten up the policy,” said Jones.
Jones and Yee also reevaluated the methods they used in the past to alert parents. “Instead of mailing a letter, we decided we would use modern technology and email and call the parents,” said Jones. This new system is more effective, as it’s easy for students to intercept letters, and will save the school time and money, said Jones.
In previous years, students needed to make up four hours of educational time to get off the LOP list by serving detention. Due to budget constraints, Saturday schools have been reduced from last year, but lunch and late start detentions have been initiated to give students more opportunities to get off the list, said Jones.