From fourteen mods to ten, to only juniors and seniors with off-campus passes, this year has been different from the ones before. Not only that, but there’s been a lot of talk in the hallways about the new attendance policy
Principal Jay Dostal made these changes very quickly, resulting in unanswered questions from students. One such question revolved around clarification of the new three absence rule leading up to homecoming and how it will be implemented for future events like winter formal.
“On signs in classrooms, it outlines five, ten, fifteen and fifteen-plus absences,” Dostal said. “That’s where winter formal and prom will come into play since most students won’t reach that threshold by homecoming. That’s why we put in the three absence rule and that’s based on historical data of student attendance.”
Administration will start looking at ten and fifteen absences when it comes time to talk about winter formal because it’s before winter break. Then the attendance will be started over for the next semester, bringing everyone back to zero. Second semester attendance will be counted towards prom.
With the sick season coming up, people will start to miss more days of school. Dostal plans to implement this policy by focusing on the individual student rather than the student body as a whole.
“If you’ve been sick and have been out for two weeks because you have mono or three days for the flu, we obviously do not want students to attend school ill,” Dostal said. “However, we will be having a conversation to understand what’s happening. This is very different from someone who has been skipping class, and we have to differentiate between those individuals.”
Hitting the number of absences does not always mean consequences will take place. It will be the starting point for a conversation to improve attendance. If there’s a reason for the missing class, there will be more lenience when it comes to consequences.
The administration is asking students to bring in doctors’ notes if they have them. The more documentation they have, the more sure they are. Although it’s clear these changes are being made to stress the importance of attendance, the real question is why they’re being implemented so quickly.
“A lot of these things are kind of like a perfect storm,” Dostal said. “The attendance piece isn’t just a Westside High School thing, it’s a whole district thing. That’s why you see attendance posters all around the district. We’ve seen a decrease in our average attendance since the Covid pandemic and so it’s a district issue.”
There’s been feedback from staff about making sure there’s accountability for everyone and that people are in the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing. These changes seem like a lot, but there’s a lot more that needs to be done, according to Dostal.
“We are going to have to go through some bumps in the road, as we’ve seen at the beginning of this year with schedule changes,” Dostal said. “We’ve already been working on adjustments for the second semester so we do not repeat that situation again,”
Other districts in Omaha and even other states have made modifications to their attendance since the pandemic. This is not only a Westside issue. This is a national issue.
