Morning Minute for Friday the 16th of February

• We are not making any more schedule changes for students at this time. We are two weeks into the term and the dust has settled. As always there are some exceptions (Intervention, SPED, ESL,), however, students simply wanting to change classes is not one of them. 

• Our new Interim Superintendent  Dr. Husk will be visiting Harrison Park on Monday morning. Just an FYI. 

• Teachers who have 8th graders 1st Period. Please send them to the auditorium after you take attendance. If you only have 8th graders we ask that you remain with them. If you have a split grade level class please send your 8th graders only.

• The good news is our attendance has improved this year. However, we had an office meeting and there are some areas we have to get better at. Any teacher who has a rostered class list needs to take attendance each period they teach. In the past, we asked for people to take it in the first ten minutes. If you are taking it at this time you need to be sure to go back and change students who come in late. If you prefer to take it later in the period to avoid reentering that is okay as well, but you need to be sure you take it prior to 12:30 as this is when Naima sits down to run reports and look for issues. I will share some of the concerns that came up. 

Example: Student is with a counselor. The counselor sends them to class with a pass. The teacher has marked them absent. Teacher does not go back and mark them as present when they return with said pass. Student is counted as absent and a call goes home at 1:00. 

Example: Student slips into class quietly. The teacher has marked them absent. Teacher doesn't notice they slipped in until later in the period and forgets to mark them as present. Student is counted absent and a call goes home at 1:00. (Note this student is pretty smart not to call attention to themselves 😅)

Example: A student is absent 14 days in a row. They are not marked absent in several classes during this 14 days. Student is not dropped because it shows they were in the building. 

Example: A parent shows up panicked, not once, but twice, because they got the 1:00 call. The office checks in with teacher to make sure the student is in the building. They are. Office calls the period they were marked absent in and the teacher relays they were indeed there. 

Example: A student is marked health exempt and is here until third period until someone notices they should not be here and alerts the office. 

I know this is a task that eeks away at valuable teaching time, but it is one we have to improve on. If you are doing a visual check of students be sure you see their eyeballs and not just the back of their heads...kids can look alike and move seats. We can do better 💓 and hopefully these examples help!

I asked and there are some staff members who do a great job and actually call in things they notice in attendance. Way to go Elin, Natalia and Benson! I am putting a Panther Pay entry in for you all.