CalendarNovember 2011
Dear Friends and Families of Lawton Elementary School,
We have reached the end of the first grading period, and arrived at a season when many families have travel plans. The school district has embraced the Mayor’s school attendance campaign Be Here Get There. This campaign encourages some friendly competition among schools to get there attendance rates up. I am happy to report that Lawton’s attendance rate is currently at 97% meaning that on any one day 97% of our kids are here and learning.
Be Here Get There is a joint initiative of the City of Seattle, Seattle Public Schools, the Alliance for Education, and Get Schooled to raise awareness of the importance of going to school using community-wide education and incentives. Research has shown that students with more than 20 absences per year have less than a one in five chance of graduating from high school. In the 2009-2010 school year, only 62 percent of students met the school district’s attendance goal of having fewer than 5 missed days of school. Last year, Lawton had 76% of students that met this goal.
Dr. Enfield sent a letter to families highlighting our attendance policy, and families have asked for some clarification around excusing Pre-planned Absences.
I know that many of you had already made plans before this initiative was announced and there has been some anxiety around what requirements would be put in place.
We have created a document, available here and at the school office, that will both notify the office of a pre-planned absence and document an Educational Trip Plan.
The Educational Trip Plan needs to be mutually agreeable to the teacher and family, and both are asked to sign off on it before turning into the office. We request that this be 3 days in advance of the planned absences upon which I will review and approve these requests. Missing schoolwork can be made up, but missed school experiences and discussions that create a classroom community cannot be.
However, we live in an amazing world and I know our student can benefit greatly from exposure to new places, languages, ideas, foods, and people. It is hoped that an educational trip plan can serve dual purposes – both to ensure that students don’t fall behind on class work, and also to encourage intentionality of families in their planning to capture some of the learning and educational opportunities that each new setting affords.
I look forward to many rich conversations with you as we move into a time of family conferences. I will be keeping open office hours as much as possible during conference week and encourage you to drop by my office during those days.
Together we can meet the challenges and develop new opportunities for our students.
Sincerely,
Dr. Neil Gerrans
Interim Principal Lawton Elementary
ntgerrans@seattleschools.org
206 252-2130
