By Doug Berg
On December 1, the Mini-School staff initiated a new attendance policy. Briefly it is this: whenever a student’s absences exceed 7 in any class in any quarter, the student receives no credit for that class for that quarter. If the student’s absences exceed 7 in more than one class, the student is removed from Mini-School for that quarter.
The student, when he exceeds 7 absences, has 4 days to get himself off the hook. He can do so by acquiring “breaks.” A “break” eliminates one absence and can be earned in the following ways– 3 Boosters memberships sold equals one break; 10 pencils donated equals one break; one couch donated equals one break; 2 chairs donated equals one break. Breaks can also be earned through negotiations with individual teachers. No more than 5 absences in any one class can be excused by breaks, however.
The system is in its early stages, but thus far attendance seems to be improving. A number of students will be removed from the program, but will probably be back next quarter. The main rationale behind the new policy is, first, to improve attendance, and second, to make it clear to the staff who wants to be here and who doesn’t. It gets pretty hard to work with kids when they are not here.
The staff does not have time to chase kids down in the streets. Perhaps that is what the staff should be doing, and undoubtedly is what the staff would be doing if Mini-School had a full-time coordinator. For now, however, if a kid can’t get to Mini-School, Mini-School can’t get to him.