WOODBURY – New to NHS this fall is a new attendance guideline that impacts block periods. For this school year, absences on block days, which normally consist of 80 minute classes, will now be marked as absent twice for each class a student misses. Naturally, this new policy has created some student reactions.
Mykal Kuslis, the current principal at Nonnewaug High School, has insight on this policy that may clear up any doubts or confusion for students and parents.
“We take student attendance seriously because student attendance is directly related to achievement,” Kuslis said. “We are hoping the positive outcomes from this are less time missed in the class rooms and students not having to do as much work.”
It is true that making sure to show up when possible is important for learning and gaining experience in school; the same can be said for jobs and depending on where a person works.
“A perceived downside when I had my first parent advisory was that it may force kids to come to school sick,” said Kuslis. “That’s not what we are trying to do. If you have a medical note that is an excused absence. If you have an excused absence from school, it doesn’t count towards the credit denial.”
This policy is more about getting kids to school more when they can; it’s less stressful for students to miss less work and more effective to learn in the classroom as shown by the COVID-19 pandemic. Still, students feel like this policy isn’t needed and will just cause added stress and troubles throughout the school year. Are students being pressured to come to school too much?
For NHS students, this policy is a new shift, though for upperclassmen, like Rachel Evon, cracking down on serial absenteeism should be the primary target.
“Attendance [from a student perspective] is not bad,” Evon said. “ [Region 14] should really just crack down on the people who it is actually a significant issue for rather than the [students] who come to school everyday.”
If a student misses a class on a block day, then they wouldn’t have to see that class for another full day. Some students would take advantage of this.
For NHS faculty, instructors usually split up content on block days into two different halves of the class. If a student misses a full class, then they’re most likely missing a lot of content. NHS’ new attendance policy wants to equate the eighty minute block days with the forty minutes 1-8 days.
“I don’t think it matters if it’s forty minutes or eighty minutes,” said Allie Zulpa, currently a junior at NHS. “You’re still going to miss content, it’s still going to be absent, and you’re still going to have to make it up.”
It seems that the time that is missed on a block day is now just being counted equally in terms of list of credits. If a student misses a block day, they’re missing lots of work, some that can’t even be made up like long detailed labs. Forty minute classes can also consist of a lot of content too.
With this new policy, It’s easier to get letters from the state and lose credit now. Connecticut State law requires action when a student accumulates twenty or more unexcused absences in a school year.
“It is not always the students fault in every scenario, it could be the parents,” said Carolina Mayo, currently a junior at NHS.
Students wonder why there is a need to crack down on attendance like this. For NHS students, some still wonder about how this new policy will affect them going forward as these increased absences may reflect poorly on overall attendance records.
“Our goal is not to deny students credit,” said Kuslis, noting the core premise of the new attendance policy this fall. “Even when you come to our credit denial we have options for you to get that credit back. We’re just trying to communicate to everyone the importance of attendance in class.”
