A student’s high school career is an opportunity to learn responsibility, time management, and the essential skills needed to pursue a successful profession. Attendance plays a huge role in teaching responsibility, and is also crucial toward academic success. Administrators believe the attendance policy needs to be further enforced than in previous years to increase academic success. As a result, a student may now miss a total of nine days per semester, but on the 10^th absence, students may receive a brutal punishment: credit loss. Administrators do take into consideration that students may be having family problems, a sickness, etc. and allow a student to appeal and regain the credit they have lost.

The administration’s policy is successful in reducing the amount of skipped classes and providing a successful way to help students with their academics. However, they need to be practical and separate skipped classes from reasonable excused absences. Administrators should look at attendance if a student is struggling academically, however many students can be successful even if they make a habit of missing school.

According to Principal Kevin McKenna, skipping is going to happen no matter what attendance policy they enforce. Although, he believes there are many ways to reduce the amount. While this attendance policy may cause a student to not be able to graduate on time, McKenna believes that it will help students academically.  McKenna said it is a fact that students with few to no absences do better than students who miss school habitually. The main goal of enforcing the policy more so than past years is to help students improve their academic performance. Taking into consideration that administrators are looking out for our futures, I understand that attendance has a impact on how well students know classroom content. The more days a student is absent, the more information the student loses out on.

MHS Parking Attendant Rick Sharpe said the new policy has helped. “Students have become a lot more trustworthy,” he said. The number of students attempting to skip by leaving school, or going out to their cars has reduced significantly. Sharpe deems the attendance policy to be having a positive effect and agrees with it.

I believe that if the absence is excused by a parent or guardian, it’s not the administration’s business that they weren’t there. Although, if the absence is unexcused the student shouldn’t receive the same privileges as students that attended class or had excused absences. For example, credit for assignments and making up tests or quizzes should not be allowed for an unexcused absence. etc.

Trying new things, such as policies and procedures is how the administration decides what is most successful in running a school. The new attendance policy has turned out victorious thus far and they hope to have more beneficial results as the school year proceeds.