Students in their seats more throughout district, but officials
say there’s still a long way to go
Gilroy – That Gilroy students are showing up to class more often is reflected in the rising Average Daily Attendance figures, but local schools still have a steep mountain to climb, according to district officials.
So far this school year, Gilroy Unified School District’s average ADA has increased by a quarter of a percent, 95.21 percent compared to 94.96 percent during the 2004-2005 school year. Eliot Elementary School, which had one of the district’s lowest attendance rates in the past, posted the most significant improvement over last year, moving from 95.23 percent to 96.70.
Still, the average is expected to increase districtwide since nearly three months of the school year remain.
School officials attribute Eliot’s improvement to the district’s move to neighborhood schools and their new facility.
Brownell Middle School attained 96.78 percent – the top average ADA so far this year – and the second best increase after Eliot. Still, even given the district’s progress and the fact that ADA is up at all sites, Attendance Officer Frank Valadez isn’t satisfied.
“I wish we were higher,” he said. “We’ll get there sooner or later.”
Valadez’s serious concern over a few percentage points has merit. Whenever a student is absent the district loses state funds in the form of ADA. This year that’s a loss of about $40 a day for each student. The gravity of ADA was clearly defined in January, when 2,180 students or 23 percent of the district, failed to show up the first day back from Christmas break.
“Whatever our figures are they would have been higher if we had started school a day or two later,” Valadez said.
That dent in attendance translated to a loss of at least $86,502, according to an analysis released by the district. Although attendance tends to suffer during the winter months due to increased illnesses and extended family vacations, the January plunge was blamed on the district’s decision to send students back to school on a holiday.
New Year’s Day fell on Sunday this year, thus making Monday the legal holiday. Of the 32 Santa Clara County Office of Education school districts, only nine went back to school that day. Santa Clara Unified and GUSD were the only unified districts to send students back to school on the legal holiday, along with five elementary and two secondary school districts.
In January, almost every school in the district lost a few percentage points from their averages due to the post holiday melee. Eliot dropped from 96.3 percent to 94.60, Brownell from 96 percent to 95.64 percent and Luigi Aprea fell from 95.11 percent to 94.46 percent.
Gilroy High School’s rate dropped from 92.61 percent to 92.03 percent and GHS continues to ring up the lowest average ADA. During the 2004-2004 school year, the high school’s average was 93.44 percent and so far this year is 93.52 percent.
Poor attendance becomes more common as students age, Valadez said, pointing out that Brownell and South Valley did very well considering they’re both middle schools. The schools are working to cut-down on suspensions, stage meetings to discuss truancy and hold Saturday school for students cutting class.
Valadez said he would like to implement a attendance requirement students would have to meet in order to participate in graduation ceremonies, to combat the relatively high absence rate.
Currently, the high school doesn’t necessarily tie attendance into achievement, Principal James Maxwell said. But it can have an effect on grades if a teacher adds participation rates into the formula or routinely gives pop quizzes.
“But attendance per say isn’t graded at the high school level,” Maxwell said. “Every teacher has individual policies.”
The district has already implemented a 10 percent policy. Under the new rule if a student has excused absences equivalent to 10 percent of consecutive days of instruction, then all future absences must be verified with a doctor’s note.
For example, if a student has 10 excused absences in a 100-instruction-day period, the student would be in violation of the policy.
