Here at PGHS, everyone’s attendance and tardies are diligently recorded in the office. These attendance statistics show some interesting trends amidst the student population. As many of you know, attendance in the morning is not always perfect for many. Records show that there are between 20 and 50 tardy students per day. Additionally, the majority of students that come in late are those that have an open first or second period. This is likely caused by students sleeping in late or forgetting that class starts a bit before 10:15. Hopefully as the school year progresses and people get more familiar with it, the amount of late students will go down. Another common time students are late is when upperclassmen come back from an off-campus lunch. Holidays and vacation weeks cause another problem for the attendance at the school. There tend to be an abundance of absences and early excuses on the Fridays before a break or long weekend. The Mondays where the students come back also tend to have a lot more tardies and absences. Many families and students tend to leave a day or two early to get to their vacation spot for the weekend or to have more break time. After the breaks, students may be tired from their vacation, or a trip might bleed over a day into the actual school week, causing the difference in attendance on Mondays. A trend that has been uncovered more recently is the confusion regarding bell schedule changes, like on rally days or half days. Since the schedule changes abruptly and many might not be aware of the one-off Thursday or Friday where class starts 20 minutes earlier, there are significantly more tardies. A possible solution for this epidemic of late arrivals is a more streamlined and cohesive contact method for the school to announce the changes in the day’s bell schedule. The school’s Instagram is a popular form of information diffusion already at the school, so updating that on the days with altered schedules could be an effective solution. Many students either find out by showing up late or are alerted by their teachers once they get to school; few students know in advance. For anyone who was not aware, the bell schedule for each day can be found on the school website’s calendar(https://pghigh.pgusd.org/Calendar/index.html).
While these statistics may seem arbitrary to many, if anyone gets to 10+ tardies over the course of the school year, there start to be issues. There are punishments for anyone who goes above this number, such as detention or Saturday school, so make sure not to get too many. With the new administration this year, there are new attendance policies, so it is recommended that everyone checks the school handbook for more information. If you know you are tardy to classes, check your record on Synergy to make sure you avoid punishments like after school detention. Also, tardies don’t start over each semester, so don’t count on that to reset. Feel free to visit Ms. Gamecho in the office with any questions.
