Good Reason, Bad Reason, No Reason; Please Tell Us
LC High School Has To Know Why A Student Is Absent
by Paul Massman
July 26, 2010
Whether it is a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason whatsoever, the Attendance Office needs to be contacted about every student absence. This is easy to do. There is a 24 hour a day recorder at 366-8244 that we take calls off of several times a day. For those who don't like leaving messages, Mrs. Marilyn Tomasso can be reached in the Attendance Office at 366-8249 during her work hours of 7 am to 3:30 pm. If that line is busy, she has voice mail available on it. Any of the other office staff over in the Principal's Office/Activities Office will also forward a message to Mrs. Tomasso. Sometimes a telephone isn't available or acceptable...then use a note. Since we might want to check it, please include a number where we can call you to check just in case. In any case, please tell us why the student missed the class or classes...this is the most important thing. It is our acceptance of the reason that excuses the absence, not the contact.
Some folks have been confused by the elementary/middle school use of half and whole day absences as a category. At the high school level, each class period stands alone for attendance. A letter is generated by the computer system for the third absence from a class, the fifth, and the sixth. Hitting six can be a problem if the reasons are not good, since the credit for a class is dependent on the amount of class time and the quality of the work. This issue and its impact on our system by creating attendance appeals for credit will be addressed in another article on this site, so stay tuned or check back...
The key is we have to know about absences in a timely fashion. 366-8244.
