Schools

Attendance Drop Seen During Eliminated Winter Break

Paulding County Schools officials believe the higher rate of absenteeism won't have a negative impact on Adequate Yearly Progress stats.

Though officials with Paulding County Schools canceled the district’s February winter break , attendance data seem to indicate that students and families may have chosen to take a break from school anyway.

Associate Superintendent Brian Otott last week said the district saw about a 10-percent drop in average daily attendance across the district, from 94 percent to 83.9 percent, during the Feb. 21-25 school week, which had originally been set as winter break. The trend within that average, he added, was that younger the grade level, the higher the level of attendance that week, with seniors missing the most school.

“Historically, our attendance rates hold pretty flat unless you have periods of illness or something that might come through a school. But we’d consider that abnormal as far as attendance is considered,” Otott said over the drop in the average.

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Though the drop in attendance was out of the norm, Otott said the system in the past has seen similar drops in the past due to illness, such as instances last year where the flu hit a school early.

Despite the week of lowered attendance, Otott says he does not anticipate the absences to hurt the district’s chances at making Adequate Yearly Progress, which measures schools’ adherence to the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The attendance rate is one factor in AYP; academic progress is another.

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“Whenever a child is not in school, they’re not learning, so there’s always a concern that when they’re not there, they’re not getting what they need,” Otott said. “Our expectation, though, is for both the students and our teachers, is that we’re working hard getting everyone ready, not just for those state-mandated tests, graduation, but to be prepared, like our mission states, for the 21st century, to be successful. So, again, anytime they’re not in school is a time we want them, but we’ll do our best to make up for any gaps that might be there.

“With the teaching staff we have, and the talented students, anything can be overcome,” he added. “But we want them [here] every day.”

While the district also likely saw teacher and staff absences during the winter break that wasn’t, Otott said data relating to it had not been fully compiled as the district was in the midst of a pay period.

Though inclement weather this school year has led to the cancellation and subsequent makeup of six days of classes, the district’s current 2011-2012 school calendar remains similar to the one it is operating on this year. That’s because officials last year approved a two-year school calendar.

Like this year, the next school year is 176 days long, as opposed to a traditional 180-day year. The four days were cut in the wake of a budget deficit.

Otott said officials may look to make a slight change to next year’s calendar.

“The one thing we will be adding and looking at is this February week that we experienced the problem with now, we’re going to clearly identify there that it will be a vacation week if there aren’t issues that prevent us from having school,” he said.


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