District hires supervisors of attendance

Two supervisors of attendance have been added to Oak Park High School’s faculty to reinforce attendance policies and manage student absences.

To generate consistent revenue from state funding, California high schools have to retain a certain number of students per school day. These student attendance numbers, measured by the district’s average daily attendance, qualify the school for funds from local property taxes and state aid. If a school is unable to maintain a pre-established attendance rate, then the state will reduce funding to the school.

“The state of California gives Oak Park and every other school in the district [money] based on how many kids they have in a classroom, not the enrollment, but sitting in the classroom. That’s how we get our funding,” history teacher and attendance supervisor Russell Peters said.

The Oak Park district hired two attendance supervisors: Peters, hired in the 2016-17 school year, and district-wide attendance consultant Sharon Russell, who was hired in the 2017-18 school year after previously working for the Oak Park Education Foundation and the Friends of Oak Park Schools summer school program.

“Russell is overseeing attendance records, chronic absences [and] chronic tardies. She’s making sure that we’re abiding by board policy and that we’re addressing issues of chronic attendance. Peters is doing similar work, but more about enforcing the consequences for students who accumulate unexcused absences and tardies,” Principal Kevin Buchanan said.

In other words, Peters functions at the school level, as opposed to a district level. If a student is continuously acquiring unexcused tardies, the issue is then brought to Russell’s attention.

According to Russell, the district’s premise behind encouraging students to avoid chronic attendance issues is not primarily based off of financial gains from the state or from a reputational standpoint, but rather off of student success.

“We want to instill the idea that you learn more when you’re in school, and that to be successful in life you need to get through all of the stuff that is being taught in school. If you’re in school, you are not only getting the textbook information, but also the information from your teacher who is trained in that particular area. More importantly, perhaps, you’re getting the information from your peers on that particular topic and that’s where the great discussions happen. You certainly cannot do that if you’re not in school,” Russell said. “In your careers, you will be able to present your arguments successfully and inform others on what you know. It’s to prepare you for the working world.”

Russell supervises the Student Attendance Review Team, who hold meetings among administrators, students and parents in the district office when a chronic attendance issue exists.

“[SART is] adding the consistency of enforcement to policies that already exist,” Buchanan said.

Peters, on the other hand, handles responsibilities such as managing 15-minute unexcused tardies –– a former job of assistant principals Jason Meskis and Bryan Martin.

“Most of this used to be under the umbrella of the two assistant principals. They get so busy with other things that sometimes these things just tend to get too overwhelming and too voluminous — too many kids involved. So they brought in me as a third person to do just attendance and discipline to take some of the [low-end attendance issues] off the [assistant principals’] work because they have to concentrate on a thousand other things, so it helped them and it also helped get more kids in classrooms,” Peters said.

Meskis and Martin aid in this process when uncertainties arise over potential disciplinary actions  for a specific student’s situation.

“If I run into a situation that’s not clear, nor there’s a lot of ambiguity and discretion, then I’ll bring them in and say, ‘What do you think about this situation?’ But most of the time I’m pretty well set in what I need as far as handing out discipline,” Peters said.

Overall, attendance has increased by about one percent since last year.

“When you look at one percent with the amount of money that’s involved when you’re talking a school budget of millions of dollars — that’s substantial,” Peters said.

According to Buchanan and Meskis, the reason behind this increase includes numerous factors: the enforcement of discipline through Peters, the student incentive to avoid exclusion from co-curriculars and school-organized events such as homecoming and the fact that seniors could be prohibited from participating in graduation.

“We don’t want to threaten our seniors by saying, ‘You’re not going to walk at graduation.’ It’s in the senior contract: ‘All discipline must be served in order to walk at graduation,’” Buchanan said. “That’s a horrible punishment — wouldn’t necessarily fit the crime.”

While administrators said they don’t wish to enforce these regulations, the district hopes to use these consequences in order to maintain their 98.7 percent graduation rate from the 2016-17 school year. They also hope to reduce the truancy rate from the 16.6 percent reported in the 2016-17 school year to 16.1 percent by the end of the 2017-18 school year.

“Kids need to be in school, and that’s the attitude of the administration,” Peters said.

Additionally, Meskis said that a heavier enforcement on student attendance could help combat student stress caused by missing school.

“What I’ve found is that kids get really stressed out when they miss school. You miss a day, and you have this pile up of work. It’s the worse, and then stress just builds up some more,” Meskis said.

Despite these pressures, Peters said that once students come to him to address their attendance, they are usually able to efficiently handle their designated consequences and acknowledge their wrongdoings without a bad attitude.

“Almost 100 percent of the kids that I’ve seen over the last year and up to now, including this year as well, have been very respectful. They’ve been very understanding of the discipline that may be implemented against them. It’s very respectful on both sides — I don’t get mad,” Peters said.

Peters said that he maintains an impartial standing when disciplining students.

“I don’t judge them. They get in trouble, that’s fine,” Peters said.

Calling Peters “the teeth” in attendance supervising, Buchanan stresses the need for stability in student attendance.

“It’s important that we keep our attendance as high as possible,” Buchanan said. “We want all of our kids to be here 180 days of the year.”