North Mason schools focus on attendance

North Mason School District’s announced this year’s attendance campaign, “Showing up together,” in a news release Sept. 9.

“This campaign will run throughout the school year, to highlight how attendance is critical to student success and how we must all work together to make attendance a priority,” according to the district.

“This year, we will focus on this theme of showing up for ourselves and showing up for each other,” Superintendent Dana Rosenbach said in a video message.

“Video takeovers” will happen throughout the school year to talk about attendance, according to Rosenbach.

“We’re all familiar with the saying it takes a village to raise a child. Likewise, it takes teamwork to contribute to the success of your child’s school attendance and development. This year, let’s show up together and work together to ensure that success,” Rosenbach said.

In January, Director of Systems & Supports Chris Turner spoke to North Mason School Board members about how the district manages attendance.

School officials call an absent student's home twice a day, at 11:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. to make contact with a parent, Turner said.

If a student continues to miss classes, the district sends a letter home that requests a meeting with parents. The last step is filing a petition with juvenile court to compel the child to attend school.

For the 2023 – 2024 school year, the district set an attendance goal for 100% of students to attend at least 85% of the time, according to Turner.

"I anticipate we're going to easily make our goal and we'll be able to set it even higher next year," Turner said in January.