Samo amends attendance policy to align with CA state policy

At the start of this school year, Samo administration revised the attendance policy with changes implemented to make clearing absences and tardies more accessible, while providing more leniency regarding the permissible amount of class absences. Despite this new policy, consequences concerning potential misuse of lunch passes are being more strictly enforced.Prior to these revisions, a student who reached 12 class absences would be prohibited from participating in extracurricular sports or fine arts and leaving campus during lunch by having their lunch pass confiscated. Two days of uncleared school absences could be restored by attending Super Saturday, Samo’s on-campus community service or tutoring in the library. This year, instead of 12 class absences, the number has been changed to 18. This equates to three school days, rather than the previous two. H house Principal Tistan Komlos and administrator in charge of attendance, explained the reasoning behind the policy revision. “The state requires official letters informing parents of their child’s unexcused absences to be sent [out at] three school days. At Samo, three days is equivalent to 18 class periods. We didn't want our policy to be more strict than the state’s. By making it 18 absences instead of 12, we are able to match the state’s policy,” Komlos said. In addition to the attendance policy revision, Samo has provided students more opportunities to clear their absences and tardies. A new program called Super Wednesdays allows the first thirty students who sign up to use late start as a way to restore absences. From 7:05 a.m. to 8:35 a.m., students can clear up to six absences in room L202.Despite this, the school staff is strictly enforcing lunch pass privileges. Students returning late from off-campus lunch will have their IDs confiscated by security and turned into their house office, where the red lunch pass icon will be punched out. The punched ID will be returned the following day. Lunch passes can be restored two weeks after the first offense and one semester following the second offense by purchasing a new ID. If lunch tardiness becomes a recurring issue, surpassing three offenses or reaching 18 period absences, permission to leave campus will be revoked for the remainder of the school year.  Komlos explained that the school’s goal is not for students to spend their weekends in the cafeteria at Super Saturday, but to encourage an environment in which students do not skip school and can easily restore absences and tardies if necessary.