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SCHENECTADY
Schenectady High winning attendance battle
BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Kathleen Moore at 395-3120 or moore@dailygazette.com.

    Three years ago, a quarter of Schenectady High School’s freshmen weren’t showing up for school. Now, for the fi rst time, the attendance rate is finally breaking into the 90 percent range.
    For the first two quarters of the school year, attendance has hovered around 90 percent. That’s a small improvement over last year, when attendance was 88.8 percent for the same period.
    But there’s still a long way to go. In an ideal world, the only students not in school would be those with occasional, excused absences — such as a sick day. If every student at the high school took 5 days off for illness each year, the school would have a 97.3 percent attendance rate.
    The state considers an acceptable attendance rate to be 92 percent. While that rate is still far away, the district has improved significantly over the freshmen attendance rate of 76 percent in 2009-10. Since then, the district, using a state School Improvement Grant, hired two attendance deans to track down students and get them to school.
    “The first year it was, ‘We’ve got to get more kids in the building.’ Now it’s ‘We’ve got to get more kids into class,’ ” attendance dean Matt Van Dervoort said. “This year, we’ve been able to break it down, target specific areas of the day, groups of students. The problem is whittling its way down.”
    Their job is getting easier. Last year, the deans focused on freshmen, in hopes of building good habits that could last the rest of their school years.
    This year, that’s paying off: Sophomores are coming to school far more regularly than in the past, Van Dervoort said. The students who failed ninth grade have the worst attendance, he said, but the deans now know what to expect with them.
    They’re also bracing themselves for the flood of truancy they expect to see in the spring. Last year, they were surprised to see attendance plummet dramatically in the last quarter of the school year.
    “We know it’s coming now,” attendance dean Jeff Leahey said.
    They plan to target students who are heading to summer school. Those students may have decided it’s not worth trying to complete the school year.
    They’re also going to offer a carrot, setting up summer jobs through Roots and Wisdom and the county job training program. Students with good attendance will be given jobs, which may encourage them to keep coming to school once the outdoor weather is warm and inviting.
    In another incentive, the deans began offering intermittent rewards this winter to those who get to class before the fi rst period bell. On certain days — announced in advance — every student who is seated before the bell gets entered into a lottery for Schenectady basketball game and school dance tickets. ....................>>>>.........................>>>>..................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01000&AppName=1