Interview 1 Mike Medure

504 ATTENDANCE AUDIT

Spring 2017

J: This is my interview with Mike Medure, Principal.

M: Yep, yep! Oh, is this like the interview?

J: Yes, legit. (Laughing)

M: The professor is going to listen to this?

J: No, I am going to transcribe, shes going to read.

M: Oh, okay. Interesting.

J: Watch what you say. Alright, so in looking at this excel document that I sent you, were there
any surprises, any ah has, anything that stood out to you as interesting?

M: Um, yeah. There was a grade level that I was really surprised at. Preschool had quite a lot of
absences if I remember correctly. Who gives me a one-sided document that I have to read
across?

J: AJ. AJ printed it.

M: Well, theres your first mistake. Um, yeah because preschool went across. Preschool
surprisingly had is that days or hours or how is that?

J: Those are days. Those are days per the data that you sent to me. Whats really shocking about
that is preschool is only half day. So, if they are missing that many half days, whats going to
happen when they get to kindergarten and its full day? Or is that because its half day and its a
transportation issue, or?

M: No, we bus almost all of them. We bus almost all of those kids. That is alarming. That one,
preschool.

J: Yes.

M: Because what that says is we are starting their education off on a very, because it really
doesnt change. Theres slightly a, well third grade. It just progressively gets worse, basically.
Yeah, not good. Not good data. Now, they had said that my Hispanic students were the worst.
Based on the percentage of the students that I had. Now, you may have a question on that, so I
will be quiet.
J: Well, actually I was going to talk to you about the student perspective first. Then the teacher
perspective and on to the district. So the students that I surveyed, I surveyed third grade students
and I asked them questions like what time do you wake up, how do you wake up, how do you get
to school. And of course, third graders responded that they wake up by a parent or a caregiver.
Their responses about why they miss school beyond illness is waking up late or missing the bus.
So, what can we do better as a building to maybe curb that not waking up on time or missing the
bus. Do you think theres more we can do or are we doing everything and theres a component
thats missing that needs to be improved? Obviously third graders, they cant be held
accountable for getting themselves here on time if they are also at the mercy of an adult.

M: Well, even missing the bus. Missing the bus um, you know, what are you going to do there?
I mean, thats up to the parent. Some of this has to fall back on the parent, on them. I mean, as a
building we will do whatever we can to try to help them, but when that responsibility of getting
the student to school has to fall on that adult. Now, if it is a transportation thing, they may look
at SARTA, they may look at some of that transportation. We dont have a van that travels
another route. I dont think we get state reimbursement for that. So, that would be a huge cost
for the district and then where do you go? Do you drive around all of Massillon to try to figure
out where these students need to come? And then not waking up, in the past weve bought alarm
clocks, but still even if we give them the tools, they still have to use them. You know? We do
have, the first thing that came to mind was the automated call system, could we utilize that in
some form or fashion, which I never even thought about as a system for some of our chronic
people as part of the attendance plan or intervention plan which now we have to try to create.

J: And that leads to the next question because after students were asked what made them miss
school, they were asked what would encourage them to attend school and on time.

M: Oh, okay!

J: So, two of the options that students chose were having a mentor, someone to check in with
daily that was not a homeroom teacher, maybe someone they could meet for breakfast, just
checkin and say hi, Im here. The mentor might monitor their day, that kind of thing. It is not a
consequence. Its more of a hey, Im so glad youre here.

M: Id like to be a mentor. Sorry. Continue.

J: The second one was having an afterschool program where students could attend an enrichment
style activity such as intermurals, art, dance, something. However, they had to be at school on
time and all day. But, those were the two big ones that students said, hey I really like that idea.
How do you feel about that?

M: Um, I like the afterschool program however, what youll probably find is the students in most
need of an afterschool program will probably be the ones who are having attendance problems.
So, I dont know well.

J: Do you think that would be an incentive?

M: Well, with that I dont know. It depends on the age of the child. They are third graders that
are saying this, but do they have the means to set the alarm clock? Are they the ones waking up
the parent? Is it going to be enough to drive them to say okay you can. Is it enough to say you
cant stay after school? IF they dont stay then you have to send them somewhere. I dont know
if our current afterschool program would support us in that fashion to say kids cant. Because
most of them use it for kids that need after day care. SO, youre creating a problem on the other
side if I was to be a devils advocate, that would be a transportation nightmare from us because
we would see who is staying, whos not staying? Someone would have to keep that log and that
opens up for another error. If a kids not supposed to stay and a parent thinks they are staying
and the kid goes home on the bus to someone whos not there. I mean, I get it. I like it, but I
dont know if thats the right way of going about it. Someone would have to monitor that and I
dont know who that would be.

J: Okay. So, when I surveyed the teachers, 14 responded. 9 of those 14 were unsure of the
building level attendance procedures. Is this in the staff handbook? DO we have a staff
handbook? How can we better communicate this to the teachers so that they are aware of the
process that happens so then maybe they can communicate that with parents. A lot of them did
say that they have communicated with parents in regards to make up work and what to do in case
of an absence when it comes to academic work, bu thtey are not necessarily sure if parents are
being contacted or how theyre being contacted or if parents are contacting us, whats kind of
happening with the chronic absences with the truancy officer.

M:Yes, we do have a staff handbook.

J: Are teachers aware of that because I wasnt aware of that.

M: Yeah, there is one. Um.

J: Is that in the staff handbook about absences?

M: Not how its handled because thats changed. So we have an attendance officer who
Tuesdays are his day to come. Hes for the whole district. Part time. Part time for the WHOLE
district.

J: Well talk about that in a few minutes.

M: Whole district, part time. Um, so he comes on Tuesdays so, its basically coming down to a
triage kind of factor is what it ends up to be. You know one person basically a couple of hours
for home visits and things like that so we have an active spreadsheet that he sees, that we
communicate with our chronic absences. Teachers do a nice job of letting us know, the office.
That name goes on there and then theres a list of things at the top letter, home visit, formal
truancy, mediation, those step-by-step processes as they happen. So he manages that as we put
those names up there. Now, the problem with that is it is one man with a mountain of stuff to do.
And so it is, in my opinion, ineffective.
J: Okay. So, moving on to laws, district, that kind of thing. We obviously know as a district this
is some kind of an issue. Um, Ohio law (Explain the law). Knowing that this is Ohio law,
knowing that these are the steps we can take, why dont we see more of the chronic absences
going to court? Why do you feel it doesnt necessarily get to that extent? Is it because we dont
have the manpower? Is it because of financial burden?

M: No, I dont think its that. I think ones got to be the manpower, now for elementary, those
guidelines are a little bit loose. Theres a lot of things that are excused absences and some of
those steps are that I can require not just notes, but I can require doctor excuses, but then who
goes to the doctor everytime? So, manpower definitely plays a role in that because at a higher
level, there are court cases that they go and do. They do file formal truancies with that. But,
those cases are over months and then after a certain time period, you can no longer file because
the case docket is full. SO, until things get extremely bad, youre almost in a double-edged
sword. By the time it gets to a point where youve exhausted all other means, and I will print
you out the newest regulations, in effect next year, by the time you go through all those steps,
youre at a March deadline where youve got, unless things are super crazy at the beginning of
the year, but you know, most of the time its not like that. Most of the time its two days here.
One day a week, one day here, one day here and then they accrue this large number and youre
like AH! But, by that time, thats the courts. Now, what Ive done in the past that for some
reason we cant keep moving, I send a probationary letter home at the end of the year because for
this reason I got tired of it. Alright, so I said this letter serves as your first warning, at the end of
the year, one steps done. If it continues, youre on step two already. (PAUSE) Its a good
thought.

(Laughter)

M: Its a good thought.

J: Alright, so we have this state law, but we also have ESSA and we have Ohio Educational laws.
These require mandatory reporting of absences. By ___ 90% of our students are supposed to be
in regular attendance. Right now, we have at least 95% of our population with at least one
absence. Is it a financial thing? Should the state and federal levels give us more financial
support in order to help us with that attendance issue, or is there something the district is not
doing to encourage attendance that might not be financially related?

M: Hmmm. Uhhh. Thats probably a combination. Its probably going to be an unfunded

mandate that theyre going to require districts to do something to do with attendance. So, and I
dont know. Thats not my deal. I cant speak for why we dont have a full time, thats the
superintendents decision. I have no choice in that. Um, is it a problem? Yeah, oh yeah, its
definitely a problem. Will it be a part of the report card? I will say my building has never had a
penalty on the report card, so we were able to make the grade according to the report card. Um,
but again I think attendance is going to go along with some of those issues youre going to see in
the low socioeconomic buildings such as mine. Um, family stresses, priorities get misplaced
when you need food. Its kind of this vicious cycle. Its not an easy, clean problem. I think its
rooted deeply with many cultural and low socioeconomic problems.
J: So, heres a question based off of that. Other districts around us and elsewhere offer
parenting-style classes for students who do have chronic absences for students who do have
chronic tardies for students who do have issues at school. Would this be something that you feel
would be beneficial for Massillon?

M: It could probably be a part of that process. Again, you can have all of the programs in the
world, but if the parents dont want to go, I think theres a problem thats not going to resolve the
issue. If anything, it might make a more tense issue between and create a more exuberant
problem. Um, theres a case that comes to mind even in my own building now. I lost a child
because um, we were really working to create an atmosphere and provide a safety net, a support
network that was unbelievable that I dont know of other buildings that do that kind of work
behind the scenes to support parents who are struggling and have problems. But, its now come
to the point where they withdrew and now theyre going to homeschool.

J: Anything youd like to add?

M: Um, you know theres a lot of statistics that correlate attendance with performance. I mean,
it is. I dont disagree with you, it is a problem. How to go about fixing it punitively? Is that the
right answer when someones already? I mean, what do you take away from somebody who
doesnt have too much of anything? I mean, really? I dont know. Its leveled. Theres multi-
steps supportive in nature for some, but a hard line for others as well. But, I dont think and
nor do I ever think that education is black and white. It is gray. And until we start to realize that
on all levels, we arent going to get anywhere.

J: Alright, that is my final question!

M: Fantastic!
Interview 2 AJ Vennetti
504 ATTENDANCE AUDIT
Spring 2017

J: Alright so this is an interview with AJ. what if I told you this was for 3 quarters of the school
year? #00:00:17-4#

A: Id be shocked. these numbers are high let alone for 4 quarters but 3, that doesnt look good.
#00:00:36-7#

J: Any surprises? stood out? #00:00:42-1#

A: The average days absent per total student. They just seem really high. 14, 12, 11. #00:00:56-
4#

J: On average, third grader misses 14.45 days in 3.4 of school year. #00:01:15-3#

A: Thats insane. Id never have guessed it was that high. #00:01:23-5#

J: When I surveyed students, they did take a survey, they said they mostly rely on
parents/caregivers to wake them up - not a surprise. Being sick, but more commonly, woke up
late, missed the bus. What ways can we reach out to parents better to stress why school is
important? #00:01:47-6#

J: They definitely need to see something like this excel document. These absences are getting,
theres so many of them. And then I would also, along with that tag test scores, graded work
things like that because there is a correlation between the absences and grades and test scores.
#00:02:16-9#

J: Students also responded they felt that either having a mentor or after school program would
help them improve their attendance. Do you agree? #00:02:35-4# #00:02:42-8#

A: So youre saying after school??? #00:02:42-8#

J: Something beyond Boys and Girls Club where maybe they could do some enrichment
activities such as PE or art, or dance or something like that and it was held here, at Franklin and
they had to be on time and here all day in order to attend the after school program. #00:02:59-1#

A: Personally, I dont think it would be effective. These arent high schoolers where they can
jump in a car and drive to school or walk to school. We are talking about third graders who are
reliant on their parents and if their parents arent bringing them to school, I dont know how
much. Now, the kid would be excited about it. But I dont see the parent caring. #00:03:25-6#

J: Do you think that would encourage the student to maybe encourage the parent to get them to
school and maybe less inclined to let it slide if their parent doesnt wake them up on time, or?
#00:03:36-7#
A: It might for a few, but overall, no. I dont think it would have that big of an impact.
#00:03:47-3#

J: Have you ever heard of a program called WatchDog Dads? #00:03:47-3#

A: No. #00:03:47-3#

J: Explanation. #00:03:47-3#

A: That could have a positive impact on our students. They are very impressionable. The more
positive role models they have, the better off they would be. #00:04:58-0#

J: Do you think we would have parental support? #00:05:04-6#

A: Schedule, working, I think if they could work it out, they would be there. #00:05:19-1#

J: Teacher survey - only 14 responded. Presentation at staff meeting. #00:05:33-4#

J: 42% do not know attendance procedures. How can we better communicate this to the staff?
Handbook? #00:05:53-3#

A: There should be a staff handbook and that should be in there. Obviously emails, would be a
crucial communication piece to that. Teachers dont check emails. Post it - so parents can see
what the policy is. They can see consequences. #00:06:30-5#

J: We are going to talk about consequences in a minute. #00:06:42-2#

J: teachers agree with students about how it is parents not waking up on time, missing the bus.
Even though they did not see the student responses. In what ways can we work out
transportation issues with the parents or the district to ensure we get students to school?
#00:06:56-6#
J: Do you think our transportation department does an effective job of communicating to parents
routes, times, contact. Do you think parents know who to contact? #00:07:20-0#

A: I dont know if they are aware of it. The information is easily accessible. All you have to do
is go our school website and the information should be on there. That is up to the parent to be
responsible and look. I know I have a daughter who gets transported by bus to the middle
school. There have been times we have had to call the bus garage to change where she gets
picked up. I have never had a problem with them. I think they do a pretty good job at least over
the last couple of years making sure kids are getting to school. I dont know. #00:08:03-8#

J: Teachers responded positively to the mentor program as well as an incentive program. Do you
agree? #00:08:22-0#

A: I think an incentive program is great and once again, I think the kids would buy into it. Its,
once again, the parents. They have to know what is available to them and what incentives are
there to get students to school, but also be willing to participate. The more parental involvement
you get, the better attendance is going to be. The problem a lot of parents are single parents, they
work a couple jobs. they are not readily accessible to come to school at any given time so I think
that is a big issue that I dont know how to fix really. #00:09:12-9#

J: There are other districts around us who do parenting-style classes where teachers and other
trained professionals work with parents at kind of like a night school kind of class. It might be a
different topic each week, might be the same for multiple weeks, but parents are encouraged to
attend in order to learn some strategies for how to help their students. Do you think thats
something our district should consider? #00:09:50-3#

A: On paper, that sounds amazing! But, at the same time, if youre having attendance issues
with your child, youre not getting up in time or theyre sleeping in or you know youre too busy.
I doubt that these parents are going to come to something like that. Do I think its a good idea?
yes. Do I think it is feasible to do it here in Massillon, I would probably say no. #00:10:00-0#

AT THIS POINT THE TRANSCRIPTION APP I USED STOPPED. I USED MY PHONE

AND PAUSED IT FREQUENTLY TO TRANSCRIBE THE REMAINING 7 MINUTES
OF CONVERSATION

J: What if it was a requirement for a student who was habitually tardy or absent? #00:10:00-0#

A: I like that better. #00:10:00-0#

Both: Hahaha. #00:10:00-0#

A: Youve got to have some kind of motivation for the parent and you know, if they know there
might be a consequence, they might be more likely to attend. But, that was one of the things I
was going to say to you. If you dont make it mandatory, people are not going to come.
#00:10:00-0#

J: Some people questioned whether the attendance policy or attendance is being handled the
same across the district. This is an area, we as a district are held accountable for on our state
report card. Are we doing enough? #00:10:00-0#

A: According to this spreadsheet, no. Absolutely not. If youre telling me certain grade levels
are averaging 14, 11-14 days a school year, no we are not doing our jobs. And I know that we
have certain policies in place I dont know each building if theyre pretty consistent across the
board. I do know that we have an attendance officer for the district, but when youre talking
about a district that has over 3,000 students, it is hard to reach everybody. I think there needs to
be more involvement by administration. #00:10:00-0#

J: Are you talking district level, or building level? #00:10:00-0#

A: Im just talking district level first and get some consistency there and hopefully that should
filter down into the buildings, but I dont think we have anything like that in place right now.
#00:10:00-0#

J: Explained Ohio law to AJV. #00:10:00-0#

A: I am shocked. I have never even heard of that happening to anybody. I know there are kids
that are missing a lot of days. I know one girl who has missed 17 days in a month. So, yeah, its
happening. #00:10:00-0#

J: So with this law, because that is the Ohio law for compulsory attendance, parents are required.
ESSA, state ed laws making it mandatory reporting. DO we have enough financial support to
effectively enforce the laws? #00:10:00-0#

A: OOhhh now youre talking finances? #00:10:00-0#

J: Yes. #00:10:00-0#

A: I should probably say no, but I know that there are funds available. The problem is you have
to make it a priority and if its not, then most of the time it is not going to get done. Financially,
we should be able to have something in place. Now, we would have to look at the numbers and
this data is just for Franklin, correct? So, youre averaging 14 days for some grade levels, just
for this school building. Now, multiply that by the 4 other buildings we have in this district and
youre looking at a huge number of students. So, financially, would it be feasible to reach every
one of them? I dont know. That sounds like a stretch, but once again, I think there needs to be
some other things in place so maybe more people are involved. I dont know if thats going to
help out the money issue, but its just like anything else. The more you harp on people, they get
sick of hearing it, so then something happens. The problem is, I dont think we are getting to
these people enough. Putting some pressure on them to do something about it. #00:10:00-0#

J: So, my last question kind of goes along with what you were just saying. Do you feel, other
than financial burdens on the district, or what else might be keeping us from having better
attendance, or at least enforcing these laws to the fullest extent? #00:10:00-0#

A: Well, like I said, youre talking about single-parent homes, too many kids to have to monitor.
You have to have, like I said, you almost have to have a committee type of thing where youd
have to get more people involved. I know that the admin have a lot on their plate, but all we do
is talk about test scores and raising test scores and how important they are. If the kids arent in
school, theyre not learning. Bottom line. And until we get them to school on a regular basis
and i know theres sicknesses and people get sick and the flu goes around. You cant tell me 14
days, the average student misses 3/4 of the year. You cant say the test scores are important with
out applying the attendance with that. #00:10:00-0#

J: Alright, well, thank you very much! That was my last question. #00:10:00-0#

A: Nice.
 Attendance Audit: Recommendations and Action Plan

Jennifer Swansburg
ED 504
Spring, 2017

As presented in my Prezi, here are the recommendations and next steps for battling the

attendance issues with my district. On a side note, my principal has asked that when an

attendance committee is formed, I be a part of the committee.

Dig In Deeper

In looking at the data that was used for this project, I focused on ethnic subgroups. The

findings show that our population has a severe absence problem. According to an article by

Hedy Chang titled Absent in education: millions of students nationwide are chronically absent,

but there are solutions to the problem, national data also show the same populations we have our

highest numbers of absences, are nationally also the highest such as multiracial (Chang,

2016). Some areas not analyzed were subgroup categories such as identified students - either

with IEPs, 504s or Gifted. It would be interesting to see what could be taken away from this

data. We will need to also look at data from previous years to ensure that the results of this

years data are valid and reliable.

Parental Input

The next suggestion would be to present our findings to parents. While the building and

district can create strategic plans for tackling this issue, we need to understand and value the
input from our parents and community. The majority of our staff are white females. However,

we service a large population of Hispanic, Black and multiracial students. From a this

perspective, as well as the socioeconomic perspective, we need to start some discussions. In an

editorial article from the Washington Post, School attendance gets a closer look, Students who

live in poverty have some of the highest absenteeism rates and are the most at-risk academically

(Washington Post, 2013). According to the article Five myths about school attendance, Often,

chronic absence is tied to poverty-to families who have no reliable transportation, little access to

health care, and unstable housing, or no home at all. Understanding these patterns can lead to

solutions (Chang, 2010). As educational professionals, we most likely do not understand what

the home life is like for the majority of the students we service. Talking to parents and the

community will help build not only awareness in the staff, but also build relationships between

staff and community when it comes to implementation of a strategic plan.

Building Plan

In a 2016 article by GreatSchools staff titled, Why attendance matters, some

recommendations were offered for schools and communities in regards to attendance. A few of

them, such as building environment and talking to students about their absences were suggested,

following the same ideas as the teacher survey and student survey that was given for this project

(GreatSchools, 2016). Some other suggestions and ideas presented in How a schools

attendance number hides big problems by Elissa Nadworny for NPR, a principal, Mark Gaither,

from Baltimore, Maryland, has launched a kid-by-kid campaign (Nadworny, 2015). He

focuses on the chronically absent students one by one to not only improve attendance, but raise

test scores as well (Nadworny, 2015). Another student-by-student approach mentioned in the

same article is creating a building level team of social workers, the truancy officer, and other
professionals who look at attendance data, by individual students, for ... patterns, highlighting

names of students who have missed three or more days. Then share from their different

perspectives what they know about each student. They start with the youngest kids (Nadworny,

2015). From there, They talk about home visits, discuss what community resources may be

available and make plans to call families and talk to teachers about what might be going on

(Nadworny, 2015). So, if we focus on students who are chronically absent, suggestions such as

an automated phone call to the home to help wake up students on time might be a good idea.

Our school currently provides free breakfast and lunch to all students. Another way we

can potentially encourage parents to get students to school on time is to get the word out better

about breakfast. We open our doors at 8:40 am for students. As mentioned in the Five myths

about school attendance article, opening up the school to parents who are just getting off work

from overnight shifts so they can drop students off for breakfast might help so they can then go

home to sleep, after students are dropped off (Chang, 2010).

District Plan

Obviously, many of the district decisions and next steps will be informed and driven by

the Ohio House Bill 410. Policies for attendance must be edited and refined to be in compliance

with the law, which will be enacted with the 2017-2018 school year. One major suggestion, as

mentioned before is certainly to look at the data at each building. From there, look at the larger

picture of the district and collect further teacher, student and community data through

surveys. Some suggestions such as parenting classes and support services which were mentioned

in my surveys and interviews are a required part of the law. Another suggestion mentioned

throughout this process was the creation of a taskforce or committee for attendance. This is now

a requirement of House Bill 410.

 The district should consider a public relations campaign for attendance. This is

something other districts have been doing - such as a billboard with attendance statistics on a

busy local highway. Through social media, websites, newsletters, automated phone calls, letters,

door-to-door communication, the district can and should get the word out about

attendance. Sharing statistics such as dropout patterns are linked to attendance, beginning in

kindergarten (GreatSchools, 2016). Carma Henry, writing for the Westside Gazette (Broward

County, Florida) in Obama administrations new initiative to combat student absenteeism,

former Attorney General, Loretta Lynch, is quoted saying, Kids who are chronically absent

from school are much more likely to drop out later - and not only do they miss the opportunities

that come through education, but they are also at greater risk of involvement with the justice

system (Henry, 2015).

Consideration of additional manpower to support our part-time truancy officer. One man,

working part time to service a district of over 3,000 students is not having a great enough impact

for our district. Consideration of additional transportation services to support the chronically

absent or tardy students is also necessary. Working with the community services we already

utilize and potentially bringing more on board to help support this should be part of a district

plan. Again, without the community, we are alone in this battle.

The bottom line is, we have some work to do. Throwing our hands up and quitting is not

an option. We need students at school to learn. We need to support our students to get them to

school.

References

Chang, H. (June 8, 2016). Absent in education: millions of students nationwide are chronically
absent, but there are solutions to the problem. US News & World Report, . Retrieved from
https://www.usnews.com/opinion/articles/2016-06-08/chronic-absenteeism-is-a-national-crisis
Chang, H. (September 10, 2010). Five myths about school attendance. Education Week, Volume
30, (Issue 03). Retrieved from
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/09/15/03chang.h30.html

Editorial board. (2013, September 15). School attendance gets a closer look. Washington Post.
Retrieved from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/school-attendance-gets-a-closer-
look/2013/09/15/fd3b18fc-1b25-11e3-a628-
7e6dde8f889d_story.html?utm_term=.e84dc1bd2548

GreatSchools Staff (June 9, 2016). Why attendance matters. GreatSchools. Retrieved from
http://www.greatschools.org/gk/category/school-life/

Henry, C. (2015, October 16). Obama administrations new initiative to combat chronic student
absenteeism. Westside Gazette. Retrieved from
http://www.thewestsidegazette.com/obama-administratios-new-initiative-to-combat-chronic-
absenteeism/

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