Every year, the school has an annual tradition where a majority of the senior class plays hooky to hang out with friends, often at Lake Lyndon B. Johnson (LBJ). Senior skip day absences are unexcused and this year the unofficial event falls on Friday, April 4.
“We always ask teachers to keep a close eye on attendance and counselors and assistant principals are always looking at attendance because our number one goal is to make sure all our seniors graduate and part of that requirement not only is grades and credits, it’s also meeting the attendance requirement,” Berg said.
On senior skip day, school absences usually go from approximately 150 to around 750. Although this is fun for students, admin wants students to be award of their attendance especially with limited Saturday school days left.
“There’s a few times where students will bring in notes afterwards from parents thinking it will be excused, and we do have to enter those notes, but it does not excuse them,” attendance clerk Amy Staley said.
Staley says that senior skip day does not really cause any problems for the attendance office. However for the district, attendance can have a negative effect.
“Schools get funding or the district gets funding based on attendance, so anytime we have students that are not here, that are not excused for doctor, dentist,college visits, it does have an impact on the school district,” Berg said.
Students can afford up to nine absences per class per semester. So Staley explains that as long as they stay on top of their grades and attendance, participation should not cause any issues for seniors. It is important to note though that the event is completely unrelated to school run senior activities like senior assassin.
“There are some situations where seniors do tell their parents it’s excused by the school, and so parents do call us and confirm, and are surprised to find out it is not,” Staley said.
According to Berg and Staley, the amount of senior absences has not been significantly different from previous years. There can be a rare case though where senior skip day is the final straw for a student with too many absences.
“We’ve had students that don’t graduate with the Johnson class. They might be a summer graduate due to attendance,” Berg said. “So, that’s why we are constantly working with all students to make sure that their attendance doesn’t affect their graduation.”
