BARNEGAT – The local high school’s mascot has found a new reason to light up school spirit on its digital marquee. Its “Bengal Brag” display now showcases monthly student attendance and on-time percentage rates as one of its tracked achievements.
In the month of September, an impressive 94 percent of students filled their classroom seats daily, while an even more remarkable 96 percent were in the building before they were due in their seats at the start of the school day.
“Two weeks ago, I walked past the attendance office,” said Vice Principal Frank Pannullo. “There were literally only two kids who had come in late, waiting to sign in.”
Pannullo said he was excited to share his observations with Principal Patrick Magee that the line for late sign-ins was noticeably short. Just last year, it wasn’t uncommon to see as many as 30 students making the same preliminary stop before heading to class.
Chronic absenteeism and punctuality challenges continue to rise nationwide, with some experts attributing the trend to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Awards for perfect attendance are a thing of the past, with schools encouraging students to stay home if they are sick to prevent the spread of disease.
While students should take precautions when they’re sick, families should also know there’s a difference between excused absences and unexcused absences. For example, New Jersey law does not consider the performance of household or babysitting duties as excused absences. The same is true for travel unrelated to an instructional program. An accumulation of tardiness for the same class can result in credit loss.
Barnegat High School has taken a proactive stance to ensure students get “seat time” required by law and don’t fall back academically. Their approach includes active engagement with students and their families to address the issues head-on.
Magee stressed the importance of students attending classes in order to graduate high school. Students are considered chronically absent in New Jersey if they miss ten percent or more of the time they’re physically supposed to be in class to earn their credits.
During the 2022-2023 academic year, attendance and on-time numbers came in at ninety percent for the high school in October. This year’s October appeared to be on a much better track mid-month, with 96 percent attendance and 98 percent on time.
Communication appears to be a key factor in ensuring students are attending class and earning credits to graduate. Magee said he and the administrative team met with the Board of Education and formulated a plan to make attendance a priority at the high school level.
“Through our Bengal Boot Camp Intervention program, we had tremendous seat time recovery,” Magee said. “We worked with students struggling with attendance to make sure they recovered their credits by staying after or coming in on weekends.”
However, that same pathway to make up credits has changed by school board policy. Students who miss over the attendance thresholds for classes risk losing their credit. They’ll now have to go before the district’s attendance committee to determine if their absence was legitimate.
District Vice Principal Jared Burke has been an administrator within the public school system for six years and has taken on the attendance initiative. Burke also serves as the district’s Multilingual/ESL coordinator and spearheads the PAWs program, which operates during late afternoons and evenings, serving as an alternative option for students.
“We’ve moved students there with egregious behaviors as a safety concern,” explained Burke. “We also have students in there who have problems with school anxiety and school refusal. The program has also helped for kids that had a hard time coming back into the building after COVID.”
Even before school started in September, students with attendance problems in prior years received friendly notes from the district. The overall message was that attendance mattered, and the district wanted students to feel like someone cared about them.
“Our goal is to meet with the students a few times to figure out the reasons why they’re absent,” Burke said. “Maybe it’s just a matter of not wanting to go to certain classes.”
“We also are working with the teachers, so the students can make a connection, know someone is watching, and someone wants to see them each day,” continued Burke. “We want the students to know if they need someone to talk to, there are resources here, and they have that one person they can have faith in to help.”
The attendance initiative was stressed during freshman orientation when families came in to learn about the high school. As the incoming students took time to explore and walk their schedules, the administrative team spoke with the parents. They explained the critical needs of attending classes to earn the 120 credits necessary to graduate.
Attendance numbers are tallied daily, and families receive notifications if absenteeism or tardiness appears to be an issue.
“Over the last five years, all of our high school administrative team has done a tremendous amount of work to make high school a more engaging environment to be in,” said Superintendent Dr. Brian Latwis. “We’re trying to show kids that it’s important to be here, but we’re also trying to capture students based on them wanting to be here.”
“You’re not going to have an attendance issue if the kids are excited to be here,” Latwis continued.
A bistro slated for construction in the media room may also encourage students to come to school on time to socialize before classes begin.
The superintendent credited various district initiatives, many suggested by the high school leadership team, with making a difference in student engagement. These programs, which include sports, virtual field trips, a recording studio, and high-end cyber labs, have been well-received by the high school community.
Three key Barnegat High School administrative team members assumed their current roles in 2020. Magee transitioned from his position as the Collins School principal to the high school principal role. At that same time, Tracee DuBeck became one of two vice principals when she was promoted from the position of Supervisor of English, Social Studies, and Visual and Performing Arts. Additionally, Panullo’s career trajectory shifted as he moved from teaching to his current position as Vice Principal.
