Caught in credit review

It’s time to catch up with credit review

Marsida Cukaj, Copy Editor|April 24, 2023

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Chasing credit. As the year comes to an end, more students find themselves struggling to find the motivation to attend school. In the years past, the attendance policy treated students with more comfort and flexibility. “Ultimately, when you are coming to school on a regular basis and you’re on time, you’re having positive outcomes. All of that does impact your confidence, which in turn positively affects your mental health and your well-being overall,” counselor Amy Chappelle said. “So, just as negative things kind of become circular and ultimately create more anxiety, the same can be said for getting into positive healthy routines with coming to school regularly and getting help when it’s needed.”

Too many tardies and excessive unexcused absences are the perfect combination for credit review.

“Well, attendance is the key to success. When I was teaching, the first thing I told my students was that if you’re not here, you’re not going to be successful,” associate principal Scott May said. “Students that end up missing more than six, seven or eight days in a semester generally do not do as well as the students that are there every day. So, attendance is a huge key to being successful.” 

When a student hits seven absences in any hour, they get a warning letter from May. Students get placed on credit review after they reach 11 unexcused absences in any hour.

“Well, with the new attendance policy, ultimately, students end up having to make up for the lost time. So, you know, a lot of students dig themselves up into a hole early on and end up paying for it in the long run,” May said. “I do my best to try to stay on top of them and give everybody a lot of warnings, so they know where they are. But ultimately, we have a lot of students that may end up having to make up a good amount of time.”

One hour lost is equal to one hour that needs to be made up. There are a few different opportunities the school offers to make up for lost credit. Saturday school is from 8:30am to 11:30am on Saturdays in the media center. During lunch and after school, students can attend help sessions for any class. Students can also stay after school in the main office to earn time. If seniors do not have their time made up in a class that they need to graduate, they will not walk at graduation. 

“It’s good to establish healthy routines where you kind of have a schedule. There is a correlation between students’ good attendance and good grades, as well as you know, poor attendance and poor grades. So, you know, it’s not the cause, but there’s definitely a correlation between attending, being engaged and participating in school and doing well,” counselor Amy Chappelle said. “Also, it’s good preparation for life in the real world in terms of having a job or being in trade school or college where you need to be on time to class and not miss an excessive number of days, whether it’s classes or a job.”