Absences had more impact on testing cycle than the budget
Gilroy – The words of one attendance clerk, who works at both Brownell and South Valley middle schools, just about sums up the toll Monday’s protest took on local schools.
“I mean, it was unbelievable,” said the staffer, when asked how many students failed to show up after the weekend.
School officials had braced for a high absenteeism rate since Hispanic groups spent the past couple weeks convincing people to boycott work, businesses and school to protest proposed federal legislation intended to crack-down on illegal immigration. But both local and state officials had been hopeful after releasing statements stressing the importance of attending school and asking parents to send their students to class on Monday.
Still, a total of 1,639 students skipped the day. Normally, numbers that high would hit the district hardest in the pocketbook, but this week the major impact was on testing. At South Valley Middle School a whopping 196 were absent and at Brownell Middle School a total of 137 didn’t show.
Eliot and Glen View elementary schools also tipped the scales with 117 and 142, respectively. All four of the schools have a predominantly Hispanic enrollment. On an average day, most school officials said there are no more than 20 students absent.
The district receives about $40 per student in average daily attendance moneys and serves as a major source of cash. But because the funding cycle ended before the protest and ADA had already been determined by the state, the financial loss will be minimal.
Otherwise the loss would have added up to at least $65,560. But the protest did have a negative impact on education in Gilroy. Not only did the students miss a day of school, but they missed the final day of preparation before the high-stakes California Standards Tests.
District Attendance Officer Frank R. Valadez said being absent at the beginning of the testing cycle was the primary concern. All local elementary and middle schools began testing on Tuesday. Gilroy High School began testing last week.
Few parents at area schools called in to say their children were missing the day to participate in the protest, actually the majority didn’t even bothered to call with an excuse. School officials can’t verify whether students who skipped school were participating in the boycott, but they could say that absences were way higher than normal.
Yvonne Lopez, attendance clerk at Eliot, said she received a “little bit of both” while fielding phone calls.
“A lot of them said because of the boycott they were taking them with them out of town to San Jose and San Francisco (to participate in marches),” she said.
At Antonio Del Buono Elementary, which reported 108 absences, the majority of parents didn’t call in to report that their children were ill. But Principal Tammy Gabel said one mother did attempt to beat the system. The parent pressed for an excused absence so her child could participate in the protest but when she was told that her daughter would receive an unexcused absence she changed her mind.
“Then she said ‘well, then she’s sick,’ ” Gabel said.
But that didn’t work. Gabel said the girl’s absence would remain unexcused. At Brownell, a school official said if it’s determined that a student participated in the protest, and was not legitimately sick, they also would receive an unexcused absence and possible disciplinary measures.
Monday’s hefty rate of absences still doesn’t compare to January when 2,180 students failed to come to class after winter break since the Monday was a legal holiday. The absences translated to a loss of $86,502 in ADA.
