Students need to be in school

As we talked with Flomaton High School Principal Scott Hammond and Flomaton Elementary School Principal George Brown about student absences the discussion was a little bit disturbing.

As we enter the final few weeks of the school year both principals talked about how important it was for students to be in school. We talked about school report cards and how having too many students who missed 15 or more days could deduct points and possibly turn an A school into a B school simply because of excessive absences. We were a little shocked that both schools have about 11 percent of their students who have already missed 15 days of school.

Both principals made two things perfectly clear: they don't want sick students coming to school and they said students can't learn if they are not in school.

Brown said he had a child that has missed nine days, but said the child was sick and needed to be at home and not around other children.

While we think too much emphasis is put on the so-called state report cards we do agree with Brown that having a B because of test scores is one thing, having an A slip to a B because of absences is another.

What wasn't discussed at this juncture of the school year is the average daily of attendance of students for the first 20 days in September. That's where the absentee numbers mean the most.

The state allocates teacher units and money based on student enrollment during those 20 days. If those numbers fall due to absences there's a chance that school could lose a state-funded teacher unit for the next year. Think about that for a minute. If those numbers drop a school could lose a teacher unit, which in turn increases the teacher-pupil ratio, which also hinders educating our children.

We could tell that Brown and Hammond are passionate about their schools; they want their children to succeed and they want to prepare them for the future.

It all begins by making sure your child is in school every day possible to not only help them but other students as well.