Attendance is important at WPHS, but it’s also important to take care of yourself. Every minute that a student misses school they’re missing out on their education. Every minute of class time a student misses makes it hard for them to catch up.
Attendance is important to students the principals, teachers, and counselors including Associate Principal Mrs. Richards.
“Enforcing attendance is hard for principals and teachers because it is not something they really have control over. It’s something to deal with a household situation with the student or the parent or maybe both, but unfortunately the only thing we can do is motivate students with incentives, most of them are reactive,” said Mrs. Richards. “Most times it’s because students don’t want to try and come but WPHS is going to give you two meals, they are going to give you eight different teachers and hopefully there is some learning going on and a little bit of excitement going on which is why students should want to come.”
Mrs. Murphy is a Community in Schools social worker who has made it her mission to improve attendance throughout our building.
“Attendance is important to WPHS because if the students are not here then the teachers, counselors, and principals cannot do their jobs and they can’t learn and the teachers can’t teach the content,” said Mrs. Murphy.
Students struggle with attending school for many reasons.
“Sometimes students don’t want to come to school cause the work is hard or just don’t want to be here. It’s the same way other students come to school because they have to be here or to do the work,” said Mrs. Murphy.
But what can Park do to improve attendance and incentivize students to be here?
“Teachers, counselors, and administrators are here to help you,” said Richards.
Students are their priority and concern. School staff try to make WPHS a happy environment for their students who don’t have a happy home outside of school.
“Attendance is important to learn. It is also important so [school staff] can to keep tabs on students mentally, physically, and academically,” said Richards.
