Dear Parents- 12/2/19
I hope everyone had a nice break. We are excited to have our students back! As we return from break, we wanted to announce some new work we are doing in the area of attendance. Through the review of data in our school improvement process, we found that 13% of our students were identified by the state school board as “chronically absent.” This means those students missed more than 10% of their school days (18 or more) this past school year. Although we have made some efforts through our office in the past to improve this, our team wanted to bring attention and focus to this important issue. We are seeking support from our teachers, students, parents, and the whole school community to improve in this critical area. As a school building, we kicked off our efforts with a short assembly before students were dismissed this morning and established an incentive for students to encourage good attendance building wide. We have established a daily goal of 96% student attendance. When we accumulate 10 days of reaching this goal, we are planning to have a pajama day for students. Once we meet our first goal, we will seek input from teachers and students to identify additional incentives and goals to continue to improve in this critical area.
As we strive to improve in the area of attendance, it is also vitally important to have the support of parents and community to make our school its absolute best and we need your help. While we certainly understand that illness or other circumstances outside of a family or student’s control will occur and impact attendance, please continue to speak with your student about the importance of good attendance and always trying your best to be at school. Good attendance is the foundation of any successful student as well as the foundation of future successes, no matter what dream our students may pursue. We are grateful for your support as we continue to strive to grow and improve and are hopeful that we can work together to continue to make Madison the best possible place for our students. As always, if you have any questions or would like further explanation, feel free to contact our office any time.
Thank you!
Joey Sagel
Principal, Madison School