‘Reconsidering our approach’: SJSD leaders strategize how to boost attendance

By Jazmine Knight

The school year has just begun, but district leaders are already thinking ahead to how to improve attendance this year.

Attendance has been an ongoing problem for St. Joseph schools. In 2022, attendance rates stood at 70.6%. They hit 78.91% in 2023 and 77.56% in 2024.

“So what that has us doing is reconsidering our approach,” said Ashly McGinnis, assistant superintendent of academic and education services.

In years past, the district exhausted different options to combat low attendance rates.

McGinnis said they’ve talked to multiple school principals about using attendance dollars.

“Every building has attendance dollars; it was $8 per student. Now it’s $6 per student,” she said at SJSD’s back-to-school news conference.

Last year, incentives such as bikes, electronics gift cards and more were used to entice kids to come to school every day.

“The research shows that those lose their luster after a year or so and they’re no longer shiny and new and helping us see the results that we want,” McGinnis said.

She said it’s important to also engage parents in the process to help them see the value in education.

“At the end of the day, we need parents to get the kids to school, not the kids getting themselves to school,” she said.

High school attendance rates are the biggest challenge, then eighth grade and kindergarten.

“Lafayette is definitely a struggle, Carden Park and Lindbergh are our three lowest schools,” McGinnis said.

With a goal of 90% attendance and above, Edgar wants to see strides in the 2024-25 school year.

“I look for us to break the 80 mark in 24-25 because it’s just a big issue and it’s hard to tackle at once,” he said.

He continues by saying it’s all about discipline, and educators are dedicated now more than ever to increasing that.

John Watchtel, principal at Carden Park Elementary, said this year they plan on focusing more on bringing families in and engaging them in education.

“For instance, we’re going to start tutoring parents on attendance, among other things,” Watchtel said. “We also had last year one of our first Thanksgiving dinners and brought family in for lunch during November.”

Carden Park has a sign posted at the front of the school that measures monthly attendance rates for its “Strive for 5” program. Weekly, the Carden Park team meets how to increase those rates. 

“These numbers are not where we want them or even close. And you’ll notice that specific grades like kindergarten are very tough,” he said.

Watchtel said September is a good example of rates improving. In September, Carden Park had many numbers in the 80% range.

“That is the month that usually tells us what’s coming for the rest of the school year,” Watchtel said. “Our goal is 90%, but we are not at that point yet.”

Some of the lowest numbers on the chart represent kindergarten from January to April with attendance rates in the upper 50’s.

“What can we do to support you? They need to be here. They want to be here. So if we can help, we want to help,” said Watchtel when asked what he would say to the parents to encourage better attendance.

He went on to say that being absent has multiple effects on a child’s education. It can cause stress since the child is behind and has to make up a great amount of work.

“And they’re not getting that firsthand. you know, a teacher right in front of them teaching the lesson. It’s always the next day, and we’ve moved on,” he said.

At Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting at Hillyard Technical Center, school board vice president Mike Moore talked about how the attendance rate needs to improve.

“We measure good attendance if students show up 90% of the days that their school is open, so you can miss 10% of your day. Folks, that’s a ton of days, right?” Moore said.

He goes on by imagining what companies think about an employee missing that many days at a job.

“I think in the case of the older grades, like in high school, it’s because they’ve just failed to make a connection,” Moore said.

He said making connections with programs within the schools or connections with leaders that can provide a positive future career path is crucial. Places like Hillyard Technical Center are good examples of connection-building programs, which is why Moore is excited for Hillyard’s expansion.

“What you have here is exposure and skills training that shows them that path, which will result in them getting great jobs with great benefits,” Moore said. “Really, we’re talking about overall improving the quality of life here.”

School officials are emphasizing to parents this year that education is important, and without in person classroom instruction, children will fall behind.