Thread: Why aren't you in school?

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Why aren't you in school?


Monday, September 5, 2005


By Amy K. StewartStandard-Examiner staff

Absences problematic for Ogden district early in school year

OGDEN -- Lewis Elementary School Principal Stephen Felt spent a couple mornings this week knocking on doors, looking for his Ogden School District students who had registered for school but not shown up for classes that began Aug. 22.

Not one family in the six houses and apartments answered the door.

Why aren't these children showing up to school?

"That's the million-dollar question we would all like answered," said Ben Lomond High School Principal Ben Smith.

Students are still trickling in, even though most Top of Utah school districts have been in session almost two weeks. Some students don't even bother to show up until after Labor Day, officials say.

While the Ogden district seems to suffer the most from enrollment fluctuations during the first few weeks of school, other districts experience similar unpredicted ups and downs in enrollment.

This can wreak havoc with class sizes and teacher hires -- and make principals want to tear their hair out.

School districts generally do daily or weekly estimated enrollment counts until Oct. 1, when all districts statewide take an official student count to receive state funding per weighted pupil unit.

So where are the children?

"It's a mystery in a lot of ways. We would love to have the answer," said Marshal Garrett, the Ogden district's executive director of human resources.

District principals have some theories.

Some families may still be on vacation or working in the fields. Others may have family emergencies, or the children or parents may be ill.

"Maybe the weather was just so hot it didn't feel like summer was over yet. I don't know," said Mark Peterson, Central Middle School principal.

Sometimes, the children just don't want to go to school.

"We have a lot of criers -- especially kindergarten," said Lewis staff assistant Dina Montoya.

Some people, especially if English is their second language, may not even know school has begun. Central posted notices in neighborhood grocery stores, put reminders on the school's marquee and sent mailers -- all in Spanish.

The 10th day of school is the last day for a student to show up and not be dropped from the school rolls. For the Ogden district, that was Friday.

At some schools, not being able to predict enrollment can cause problems during the first few days of school.

For example, a math class at Ben Lomond had 75 students the first day of school. The principal solved the problem temporarily the next day by recruiting a substitute teacher who is a math whiz. That solution will work until a permanent teacher is hired, Smith said.

At Central Middle School, Peterson was worried enrollment would be down because not as many students showed up to register as had the previous year. The school is staffed for 480 kids, but only 430 attended the first week.

"That made us nervous. Were the students going to show up the next week?" Peterson said. "They did."

As of early last week, there were 1,359 student at Ben Lomond, but school officials had predicted 1,316, Smith said.

At Ogden High School, about 1,500 students have been attending -- about the amount projected, said Ed Jensen, school principal.

Chris Williams, spokesman for Davis School District, said he ran into a student last weekend who still had not shown up to class. Davis district began classes Aug. 24.

"I told him, 'You better get to school,' " Williams said.

In the Weber School District, spokesman Nate Taggart says, "It always fluctuates until we kind of get settled down."

Meanwhile, principals with enrollment problems continue the hunt for their students.

Felt brought Montoya, who is bilingual, with him as he knocked on doors this week.

And he purposefully removed his school badge and donned a T-shirt -- one with the school's logo on it.

"I didn't wear a tie," Felt said. "It's too intimidating."

At one apartment building with a security door, Montoya hollered up to an open window, where a woman and her toddler were peeking over the windowsill.

"We are from Lewis Elementary School," she said in Spanish, then asked the woman if she had seen the family in question. She said she hadn't.

At the doors where no one answered, Montoya used her cell phone and left yet another voice message, reminding parents to get their children to school.

"Some of them are busy working," she said. "They just may not have realized school has started."

Montoya and Felt, driving his white pickup truck, head to the next house. All of the addresses are near Lewis Elementary, in the heart of Ogden's inner city.

The two educators wound their way through 26th Street and 27th Street, ending at a home at Adams Avenue and 30th Street. It was about 10 a.m., and people were out walking pit bulls, pushing baby strollers and towing shopping carts full of aluminum cans.

Many families work two jobs and don't have the time or energy for extra chores, Felt said. Meanwhile, a few miles southeast, Grandview Elementary School Principal LaNae Butler is not worried. Her student count has come in at 372 and isn't expected to change.

"It's always been that way," Butler said.

But her school is a different from Lewis' world. Brick homes sit on manicured lawns with well-trimmed hedges and flowers, all nestled at the base of the mountains.

"Most of the families here own a home, stay there for years and are stably employed," Butler said.

badges? You guys made school principals peace officers?

Wow is all I can say. Here the school security officers find students who dont show up or arent called in sick. 2 years ago the dean at my school was arrested for impersonation of a police officer after he went looking for kids who dident show up.

I was a tutor at my daughter's old school which is 43% hispanic. Several of the kinergarden teachers told me that their hispanic pupils missed over 30 days a year of instruction with no explanation as to why they were absent. Most were not there at the start of class which was 8:05 a.m. Most arrived after 9:00 a.m. and some came as late as noon. Of course there wasn't any reprecussion for being absent or late because if they had to follow the rules like everyone else, they would scream racisim.

Originally Posted by steelerbabe

I was a tutor at my daughter's old school which is 43% hispanic. Several of the kinergarden teachers told me that their hispanic pupils missed over 30 days a year of instruction with no explanation as to why they were absent. Most were not there at the start of class which was 8:05 a.m. Most arrived after 9:00 a.m. and some came as late as noon. Of course there wasn't any reprecussion for being absent or late because if they had to follow the rules like everyone else, they would scream racisim.

Make you sick doesnt it?