Samo administration calibrates new attendance policy

Due to copious complaints from parents over the past school year, administrators decided to modify the attendance policy and the protocol for Super Saturday. Students are now allowed 12 class absences; additionally, attendance at Super Saturday will be scheduled in shifts. Last year, the 120-period limit only applied to seniors, but now it’s for grades 9-12. The policy was originally instituted to ensure that students of all grades were consistently present in class. However, the policy had catalyzed new issues by trying to solve old ones. Principal Dr. Antonio Shelton modified the policy to better benefit students. Numerous students complained to administration about the constraints of the policy. Students said that the policy didn’t permit a reasonable amount of periods and gave no warning about Super Saturday.  Shelton has raised the number of unexcused absences in response. He hopes it will provide more flexibility for students’ schedules.  The policy originally allotted students 10 unexcused periods before requiring them to attend a Super Saturday. Since students were allowed 10 periods, they couldn’t have afforded to miss a full two days without facing repercussions. Furthermore, even less leeway was provided for those with seven-class schedules, and Samo has 728 such students.  The amended policy now allows all students 12 unexcused absences before needing to make them up at Super Saturday.  “We changed the policy to reflect the day. A school day for majority of students is six periods, not five. So we’re now allotting twelve periods, rather than ten,” Shelton said. For juniors and seniors however, it is slightly different. The overall 12-period rule still applies, but they’re also allowed two days of college visits. These days will count as excused absences as long as they get the requisite forms signed off. “Students are going on college visits and those visits are hurting them attendance-wise. Financially, it’s a hit for the school district every time a student is absent. So now there is a form that you can get. You’ll take it to your college visit, have it signed off and you’ll be excused,” Shelton said. Changes have also been made to Super Saturday. It was previously a walk-on event, but now students will have to sign up for shifts. These events are held every-other Saturday from 8:30-12:30 p.m. Students can either sign up to come at 8:30 a.m. and leave at 10:30 a.m., or come for the 10:30-12:30 p.m. shift. This change was made after having many overcrowded Super Saturdays. The event is meant mainly for tutoring or restorative justice meetings, and overpopulation has made it impossible for the event to be productive.  According to the old policy, when a student had reached/surpassed their allotted 10 periods, they became required to attend Super Saturday.  Super Saturday is a recovery program that allows service to make up for absences. If a student has more than ten unexcused absences, they will receive a notification that they are in violation and need to go. Once notified, the student can be stripped of their privileges [off campus passes or participating in athletics] until they attend a Super Saturday.  However, the short-notice about needing to go is causing complaints. Samo has been notifying students by sending administrators to deliver notices and punch ID cards. The notifications are coming as late as three days prior to the event; forcing students to miss events like SATs and ACTs. Many parents have also spoken out on how they feel the policy has rules that are unwarranted. They feel that requirements like a written doctor’s note for something as common as a cold, or how it counts away-game absences as unexcused is unnecessary.  “What we’re trying to do is be flexible and each semester look at what’s working and what’s not working,” Shelton said. This year is the first that Samo has had a school-wide attendance policy. Similar to anything the first of its kind, tweaks are necessary. The Administration hopes that the changes made will now better acustom students, and better meet their individual needs.