Admin improves tardy policy enforcement
Calculus teacher Sanjevi Subbiah waits outside his classroom to usher in Rebecca Riley (10) before the first-period bell. This is one of the many methods teachers employ to minimize tardiness, which has recently decreased.
In an effort to crack down on tardies and truancies, the Westview administration this year has implemented more efficient ways of communicating truancies and absences within the school.
According to Area Administrator Sally Flournoy, it is still up to teachers to involve the administration with student tardies and unexcused absences.
“The teacher handles the first three tardies by doing what he or she sees appropriate to change the student’s behavior,” Flournoy said. “Assuming [the teacher] has made contact with the parents, the teacher can then file a referral and get the administration involved. This is where lunch detention takes place.”
Flournoy said that communication school-wide of the policy has improved the handling of truancies and absences.
“We really didn’t change the policy,” she said. “I think we better communicated it to teachers and the community.”
This policy revision does not increase the number of detention slips handed out but instead reorganizes its web of communication.
Flournoy said that the system has reduced the number of total truancies astoundingly.
In the first quarter of the 2007-08 school year, there were 19,314 period absences, almost 2,300 non-excused. Now, from the first quarter of this year, the non-excused number was down to about 1,200, and overall down to approximately 15,000 period absences and tardies. Students have suggested that assigning detentions is futile.
But Flournoy said that compared to last year, less people are assigned them and the majority do attend.
“Thirty kids every day are assigned lunch detentions,” Flournoy said. “Of those, eight don’t go, and four of [these] eight see me ahead of time to clear it, which leaves me with only four kids [who skipped] to follow.”
With this new system, there is a closer relationship between student and administrator. This reorganization has played a large role in limiting period and unexcused absences after the first offense.
Flournoy said that most often, truancies appear to be under the student’s control.
“We understand that things happen and those things make it harder for students to get to class on time,” she said. “It’s when it turns into a habit when [the administration] gets frustrated.”
Compared to other PUSD schools, Flournoy said that Westview’s tardy problems are minimal at best. Regardless, she said it is a problem worth trying to diminish.
“Tardiness plays a big role in students’ learning experience,” she said. “Keeping them down is important for the welfare of all students.”
Flournoy said that the district and the teachers only get paid when students come to school.
Flournoy also said that students must bear the responsibility of coming to class on time.
“With privilege comes responsibility,” she said. “[Students] are allowed to choose classes, extracurriculars, etc. Getting to class on time is just part of that big picture.”