This year is well on the way to being one of the worst years for days absent due to illness and bad weather, not to mention regularly scheduled days off. The state has changed the method of recording student attendance from days in session to contact hours. It is slightly different for elementary than it is for junior high and high school. They do not care, for whatever reason, why you are not in session, only that you have the minimum amount of contact hours for each student.
Our school calendar is built to accommodate a maximum of 7 days for unscheduled absences. Beyond that, we jeopardize student progress in not meeting academic requirements and more importantly, accountability at the state and federal levels for student performance. Long story short, we are at close to 5 days already and winter has just begun. It does us no good to make up days at the end of the year just to meet rule 10 requirements.
Standards, assessments, state and federal reporting are already done and those are what we really need to do well on. Most of the testing occurs from late January through early April. Methods of communicating to parents has also changed from the traditional method of the weekly newspaper to the use of our school website, myWausaNews.com and Global Connect, our telephone or cell calling service we currently use. To mail out a parent or monthly news letter every month is very expensive. We rely on our monthly calendar which students can take home or parents pick up. We also send home “religiously”, notes and other information with grades K-6. When trying this with high school students, it doesn’t seem to have near the success rate. No matter what way we use, we will not get everyone every time.
As far as school closing and making up days, we will utilize the following methods.
- Global Connect (telephone or cell phone calling)
- Wausa School Website
- myWausaNews.com
- Wausa Gazette
- Parent notes to every K-6 student.
We will make up days for any additional days missed from school due to bad weather or illness. The following schedule will be used which may be added to if necessary depending on when the days are missed.
- Cancel President’s day (no school)
- Cancel the Monday after Easter vacation break
- Use of emergency snow routes
- Possible Saturday sessions beyond that
- Go longer in May (last resort, does no good academically)
If you have questions at any time, please call the school and speak with myself, Mr. Hoesing, or either of the gals in the office. We don’t always reach everyone with information necessary for all occasions. Your feedback, concerns and questions are always appreciated and will be addressed promptly if signed or we know who to talk to. Again, thank you for your support and patience.
Category: News
Thank you for the accurate update!