ROCKLAND, Maine — Student absences and tardiness are a serious and persistent problem that must be addressed by the community, according to Regional School Unit 13 Superintendent Lew Collins.
“We need a call to action within every strand of our state and community to address the very serious and persistent problem of student absence and tardiness,” Collins said in a memo sent to the school board in advance of its next meeting on Thursday.
When asked to elaborate on the memo, he told the Bangor Daily News that the problem is not isolated to RSU 13 but that the district has a greater problem than in other districts he has served.
The district has had a lower average daily attendance rate than the state average. According to the Maine Department of Education for 2009-2010, the average daily attendance rate for elementary schools was 94.77 while RSU 13 had a slightly lower rate of 94.49.
But there is a greater disparity within the district elementary schools in RSU 13. The attendance rates for RSU 13 elementary schools in October of this year ranged from a low of 93.85 percent at the South School in Rockland which has an enrollment of 296 students to a high of 96.93 percent at the St. George School that had 175 students.
The superintendent will ask for the board to begin addressing the problem when it meets at 6:30 Thursday evening at the McLain School in Rockland.
He has placed the item on that night’s meeting agenda.
Collins was hired in July to lead the school district that includes Rockland, Thomaston, St. George, Owls Head, South Thomaston and Cushing.
He told the BDN there are many elementary school students who are not only chronically absent but who are significantly tardy through no fault of their own.
He said in terms of tardiness, there are students who are dropped off at school 90 minutes to two hours late on a regular basis. He said the district teaches literacy at its lower grades during the early part of the day when students are most alert and the students will not receive the benefit of that teaching if they are absent.
“Their parents need to either step up to the plate or be taken to task for such neglect,” Collins said.
Poverty and circumstance can overwhelm even parents with the best of intentions, but the young students cannot grow academically or socially without parental support, the superintendent said.
Collins told the BDN there is no reason students should be chronically absent or tardy. He said the district serves breakfast and provides transportation from the home to the school.
“All they have to do is set the alarm and get them on the bus,” Collins said.
In his memo, he said he was working on a rather grand initiative that will ultimately involve state and local agencies and officials to begin examining and addressing this issue. He said he would want the Maine Department of Human Services involved since it already spends millions of dollars on in-home services to some families.
He said he would offer more thoughts at the board meeting.
“Their parents need to either step up to the plate or be taken to task for such neglect,”
is what should be taken from this article.
Yeah baby….let’s FORCE these kids to do what they’re told and if their parents don’t patrol the scene, every second of the day, lets throw them in jail too!!
the democrat party sure is holding true to their oppressive, segregationist roots
the new control freaks in town don’t need some silly God to tell you and your family what to do and how to live your lives…who needs God when you have the false promises of a tyrannical ‘democratic’ government…
lol umadbro?
btw I wonder if many of the people choosing your argument are the same one’s criticizing the schools for low test scores? as if Bush’s No-Child-Gets-An-Education model has resulted in anything other than which you ironically rally against. Those in the middle and those who choose to excel in classes are taught to last, so as to supplement reasonable test scores that meet unreasonable criteria for those students who could care less or at the very minimum have far less support for education at home.
@JackLakesonXT /golfclap
Lots of folks say teachers aren’t doing their jobs. Well “folks” get your kid’s butts into school. Is that too much to ask of parents? If so, then someone needs to provide a new home for these kids who can’t seem to find their way to school or into a classroom.
Yes SR, and the state should take care of these ‘neglected’ children
why don’t you just admit the obvious, the socialist model of education you adore so much is literally crumbling in front of you and you are afraid to whitness the results of your often championed, selfish ideological policies
The reason to miss school should be if you are extremely sick
Seems to be too much for these people who have no intention of trying to support themselves to even get the kids to the bus. Very sad.
That is exactly what I got from reading this article.
Another thought was about parents who abuse drugs and alcohol who can’t control their own lives and are not able to be responsible parents. Just another form of child neglect/abuse.
And just last week: The Rockland High school has one of the lowest graduation rates in the state.
So pretend I’m a lower-middle-class teenager in a local high school;. You tell me “Be on time, and don’t miss days.” I tell you that “I hate school, and see absolutely NO purpose in attending….at all, and I am just waiting for my 16 birthday, so I( can quit.” The counselor/teacher/superintendent tells me that without a high school diploma, I won’t be able to get a job.
So I bite: “What can you promise me if I do get a high school diploma? “
the only promises in this world are death and taxes. You still need to go to school
But they obviously do not.
I’m not going to work for a boss who “might” pay me on Friday. How about you?
— a fighting chance at doing better than the parent who struggles with three or four jobs. Quitting school is a no-win situation.
The kids would probably get a better education doing home based online education anyway…
the dems are living in the past and their control freak policies about to get ridden obsolete
The parents aren’t responsible enough to get their children to school on time, so how exactly will they become responsible enough to teach their own children at home?
Or are you just here to make political rants that have nothing to do with the topic the rest of us are discussing?
It is not the teachers, it is not the students, it is the times. We cannot afford schools as they are, classes need to be on-line, some taught with movies made for classroom, if we do not change, we will fail.
Yup and while we’re at it, let’s give them all iPads to go along with those wonderful Apple laptops we’ve bought our students, so they have a choice of ways to watch those videos. Let’s take teachers right out of our schools and do it all in movie form.
I’m not arguing against you, just voicing my frustration that some parents refuse to be responsible for their own children and the education that will (hopefully) help their children thrive later in life. I was shocked to read that some parents consistently refuse to get their children to school on time and are allowed to be so lax with their parenting responsibilities.
Online classes require very highly-disciplined students. If a student is not disciplined enough to get on the bus and show up, why would we assume he would be disciplined enough to take online classes. BTW, we are talking about elementary students who cannot drive themselves to school. The district provides all the supplemental support (transportation and food) and still parents do not get the students to the bus on time? THAT has nothing to do with politics or socialism. It is common sense to actually parent.
“All they have to do is set the alarm and get them on the bus,” Collins
said. That’s it moms and dads, you don’t have to cook breakfast, find clean clothes, or anything of the sort. RSU 13 will take care of everything… (Poor choice of words at the least Mr. Superintendent)
I think he’s saying he’d be happy if they could just show up- if it’s that much trouble to get going in the morning, at least get them on the bus- he was talking about little elementary age students!
If kids wanted to attend school, they would. The actions of their parents aside. While I strongly believe that parental involvement is lacking today and very important to the success of our kids, the reality to me is that school is not attractive to enough kids in this district. If it was, they would get up, make their breakfast and show up on time even if their parents were asleep. (Because they worked nights.)
I agree Bill. The only thing is, teaching responsibility starts at home.
Wow will wonders never cease? I agree with you wholeheartedly.
School should be student oriented.
I disagree Bill, kids do NOT want to attend school, it’s been that way for 100+ years, but the difference is parents made their kids go to school. Now, parents are allowing their kids to control them instead of the other way around!
If I hear you correctly, a five year old or a seven year old ought to get up and make his/her own breakfast and get to the bus on his/her own? My children knew they could count on me and their dad to facilitate the day’s activities by participating in them. They were able to BE children while they WERE children.
And since when does a child get to decide whether or not to go to school? It is not about school being “attractive” [I think you might mean “fun”] but about providing a space for learning. It is important for children to be put on a path of learning and exploration at an early age. School does this.
Gee, does the district provide behavioral modification or disciplinary action for chronic tardiness and truancy? If not the students will simply push the limits because the administration has allowed them to; implement an attendance policy and actually enforce it – retired teacher here.
.
back in Worcester in the late seventies we had a similar problem. Not only were children skipping school, but they were getting into trouble and making the quality of life in their neighborhoods decline.
The local “Community Advancement Program” began assigning “trackers” to problem children. They rode school buses, walked the neighborhood streets, checked out local hang-outs, and brought children who were out and about back to school.
This was like filling a bucket that had big holes in it.
CAP looked around for a carrot. They contracted with Neighborhood Youth Corps, and arranged to have children employed after school and on weekends. These children worked as apprentices for licensed trade employers (plumbers, carpenters, Electricians) local city government, Fish and Game, the school Department and The Commonwealth. They made minimum wage which was paid through a Federal Grant (2/5ths ) A Commonwealth Grant (2/5ths), and the local entity for which they worked (1/5th) Students were eligible for this program ONLY if they had missed fewer than two days of school the prior month, or had a note from a physician. The youngest child served under this program was 12, (she worked in a local animal shelter) and the oldest child was a mentally disabled 20-years-old who worked for Holy Cross daycare.
This program ran from 1977, to 1981 when federal and State monies were cut off, but during its run, CAP lowered the truancy rate from 22% to 4.5% and many of the children apprenticed through these programs obtained full time jobs with the same entity when they graduated.
Show the children something concrete and you will get results. tell them some garbage about “possibilities” and you will lose their attention.
Thanks Lew for saying what needed to be said. It is easy [for some people] to place blame on teachers and schools for lack of student success, but it is unfair to do so when much of the responsibility resides at home in something so basic as getting the students TO school and on time. We, as a board, need to keep this in mind as we work hard to ensure success for ALL, not just most of our students.