Comments From Meeting With Superintendent-Are They Serious?!
December 9, 2009 by Brian
Filed under Featured, Posts About The Franklin County Attendance Policy
“So what you’re telling me is that if a straight A, honor student were to attend a national leadership development program and pursue earning the Congressional Award established by Congress and he misses just 8 days, then he gets an F in all of his classes for the grading period because it’s not a school sanctioned activity and it’s not a medical excuse?” – Brian Duvall
“Yes, that’s correct. Your son must make a choice of attending the program and get an F or attend school. That’s a choice he would have to make.” – Dr. Lackey, School Superintendent
“Mr. Duvall, even if the Boy Scouts were to take kids out of school for leadership development programs, those students would get F’s if they miss the 8 days within a 9 week period.” – Keith Pennington, Director of Curriculum
So you are telling me that the policy applies regardless of his previous record of excellence in grades or attendance?- Brian Duvall
“Yes. We have to make policies that apply to all students. We can’t make policies to fit every individual student.” – Dr. Lackey
This policy will destroy an excellent student’s high school transcript and damage his opportunities for college. This can have permanent and devastating effects.- Brian Duvall
“Yes it can, but it’s meant to help those students who have low attendance. This new policy gives them the chance to earn credit for the classes they got F’s in. If they do their work and attend school then they can average the F’s into their next grading period and still get credit for those classes.” – Keith Pennington
“Let’s take a look at the real numbers… they get a grade of 69 in all of their classes for the 9 weeks which is an F even if they earned straight A’s up to the point of the absences. Then even if they earn straight A’s on all of their classes and the final exams, the highest grade they could hope for is an 84.5 which is a C… perhaps a little higher because the final is 20% of the grade. Am I understanding this correctly?” – Carol Duvall
“Yes. That’s correct.” – Dr. Lackey
I think it’s a shame that our students would have to go to school on Saturday’s. Our kids work so hard with the demands now that we have. I hate when teachers give homework on Church days. I think they need more time to spend with their family for moral value’s. My vote is for no school on Saturday’s. You should hear the parent’s voices. I heard about this through another parent; not from the school which I feel like it should have come from. You should contact each and every parent to ask their opinion/ wishes.
Our real concern is that a student not be given F’s if they do the work. Saturday school is “seat time” so that the district can have better attendance figures. It is a 4 hour “study hall” that costs $20 and valuable time.
I’m currently an FCHS student who has attended many Saturday schools already, because of this ridiculous policy. I have A’s in all my classes, and finish all the make up work within a couple days of missing, so I have never found Saturday school beneficial in the least. I have wasted 60 dollars in Saturday school, where I have to pretend to be doing work due to the fact that I have NO work left to make up. The supervising teachers stress “if you have no work you might as well leave and save 20 dollars” but as much as id like to save money i cant because its necessary to pass my classes. If the purpose of this new policy and Saturday schools is to help students catch up and get better grades, why is it helping no one? This policy is extremely faulty and needs to be revised!
I think this is a rather ridiculous seeing as if you get very sick and need to use at least 6 or more days and you fail all of your classes? This doesnt seem to make a lot of sense to me. If you can miss 10 days a semester why does it matter if you miss more than 5 a nine weeks. Being a student at FCHS I feel more obligated to miss all 5 days a nine weeks, because a know a few weeks later that all of those days will be of no more use. I dont question with these days if I feel at all bad I just go ahead and miss the day or days with the new policy, i agree with these parents and say out with the new and in with the old.
This is a dumb decision made by a somewhat smart man. He thinks that this is the best choice which it clearly isn’t. The old system was much better than the new system. We need to go back to where students can miss 10 days a semester. With the new policy some kids are coming to school sick so they don’t miss to many days and sickening other students forcing them to take days off because they’re are sick to. In turn them missing to many days and possibly failing the quarter which is ludacris!!
i think that if you are passing your classes with a better grade than a D, saturday school should NOT be required. it is a waste of time and money, and where does our 20 dollars go anyway? i don’t think not a single one of us knows. i have to go to two saturday schools because i’ve missed more than 5 days in a class that i do not even need to graduate. i am a senior at FCHS this year and i feel as if everything that being a senior means has been taken away from us. This lame attendence policy was just inforced this year and we didn’t even get to voice our opinions, nobody asked what the students or parents thought. last year we could miss ten days as needed in a semester. that seemed to work just fine for every student at the school, and not to mention it was reasonable. it’s pretty rediciulous if you work hard in your classes and pass them that if you happen to miss more than the maximum amount of days you fail. that is the STUPIDEST thing i have ever heard in my life. now, if only our opinions really counted.
i am a sophmore at FCHS and i have spent a rediculus amount of money for saturday school. i have missed 6 days and, i make c,s and abouve on my report card. If i am out of school for a day and i come back the next day i will ask for makeup work and i will do it that night and turn it in the morning and i still make reasonable grades. people shouldnt have to go through saturday just because they are sick for a day or they have something goin on in there family. most classes people dont even need but yet they have saturday school for missing a few days in that class. we should be able to miss at least 14 days of school to have to go to satuday school…saturday school is just a waist of time and money, it doesnt help anybody and it is a waist of gas money.
a lot of people have things to do on saturdays. this comment should be LOOKED OVER and THOUGHT ABOUT.
the sttendance policy this year is rediculous. it is so not cool that we can only miss 5 days or we have to attend saturday school if we miss days beyond that point. with the swine flue and other contagious viruses going around it makes it almost impossible not to miss more than five days. all this attendance policy is doing is failing kids and putting them more behind to be able to graduate. also this saturday school thing is bogus! 20 bucks just to sit in a room for four hours and do work, excuse me but i think its a complete waist of my money and time! we need atleast 7 days to be able to miss a semester for things to be fair! i mean seriously, do you want your franklin county high schools to fail, or be put behind in school? you should really start to consider changing your stupid little attendance policy because all its really doing is making your students aggrivated with the school system and failing them in school or making them put their money tarwds saturday school witch is really a huge waist of time seeming how 90% of the students who pay to go there are only writing notes or texting the entire time their there! so for the students sake please sonsider changing the attendance policy back the way it used to be or give us a few more days to be able to miss, we would all greatly appriciate it.
Honestly i see no point in the new attendance policy, i mean with the old policy of TEN days saturday school seemed not such a bad idea, because you can miss A LOT of work in 10 days, but 5 days? thats pointless. and of course we have to spend $20 because we dont want to fail because of a failed system. As a junior at FCHS i’m noticing the OLD policy worked more efficently and had less complaints. which is why i say, “IF IT’S NOT BROKEN, DON’T TRY TO FIX IT”
So I never really understood the new policy but now after reading I do…and I hate it even more than I did when I just knew they were changing it. With the old policy we could miss 10 days a semester, now we can only miss 5 days per half semester…so the same number of days, but now it is divided up so you no longer have the freedom to miss days throughout the semester or take extended breaks from school.
This policy is one of the stupidest ones I have ever heard. It makes me extreemely angry that they no longer trust us to miss days and remain within our 10 day limit for a semester. Now students will have to worry about missing for vacations or even sick days because of an ignorant policy that was written for a few problem students but will instead punish the majority, the majority being every student that does not skip school on a regular basis.
I myself have never been to Saturday school, because the policy provied me with enough days that I could miss for important reasons and still maintain an A+ in every one of my classes, but I have never heard from any of my friends of have attended that it was helpful. Almost every student who misses days gets thier work and turns it in when the teacher asks, and students who take extended absenses for medical reasons, vacations, or great oportunities for college get thier work ahead of time and turn it in in a timely fashion. Therefore when they are forced to waste time and money on Saturday school they have nothing to do besides sit there for four hours and pretend to do work, or just do regular homework that they would have had from being at school.
The policy is a joke and if it is not changed would be a great harm to the majority of students and possibly be beneficial to the few students that obviously don’t care about school and who should be dealt with in other ways than creating a new restrictive policy to harm the entire student body.
What is this new policy actually achieving? If you think about it, if someone is going to miss 5 days or 10 days what does it matter? If someone is going to miss days of school, then that is their business, an excused absence doesn’t seem to exist anymore. If a teacher or county employee is absent from their job for a cumulative 5 days be it due to illness or any other reason, are they going to be punished for it? As far as I have seen, the sole accomplishment of this policy change has been to harm students grades.
The justification for this change in policy as far as I have understood it to be is to raise student attendance rates. As stated above by Superintendent Dr. Lackey “Yes. we have to make policies that apply to all students. We can’t make policies to fit every individual student.” – Dr. Lackey. My question to this would be, “How is this supposed to help anyone?” I have yet to hear how this has aided in to the improvement of the grades of any students enrolled in any courses.
Of the dialogue contained within this article, I must say that the most disturbing is in what Keith Pennington wrote, “Yes it can, but it’s meant to help those students who have low attendance. This new policy gives them the chance to earn credit for the classes they got F’s in. If they do their work and attend school then they can average the F’s into their next grading period and still get credit for those classes.” – Keith Pennington. This in response to the damning effects which this new policy could incur upon students whose grades are otherwise flawless. Shortening the number of days which a student can miss and still receive credit will not and I repeat WILL NOT improve overall student performance or have positive effect on the attendance of students.
If a student gets sick, it doesn’t matter how long they are ill they cant attend school. if a student is missing a set number of days from class for an extracurricular or other school sponsored event then they will miss the days required to fulfill whatever is necessary. On the other hand if a student is skipping classes do you honestly believe that a policy change will prevent that student from skipping classes? The thought that that idea would even be entertained is completely ludicrous, and instances such as that are meant to be dealt with in a disciplinary or legal manner.
To give a little background on where I am coming from, I am not a student that has ever had attendance issues, nor have I ever had to attend Saturday classes. However, my attendance is not and never will be perfect although I complete all assigned course work when i am absent and make all of the proper arrangements. I am a Straight A student with thus far an accumulative GPA of approximatly a 4.38, I take AP courses, I attend Virgina Western Community College every morning for the first half of my day. Despite my accomplishments this policy is dangerous to me. Consider this scenario.
I come down with a bad flu, for the sake of the discussion the Swine Flu (H1N1) and get luck enough to miss only 3 days of class, but the next week I have to make an appointment for a checkup at we’ll say 2:00 pm, this would cause me to have missed an accumulative total of 4 days in my AP Biology/ TA Chemistry course, this gives me one more day for anything to happen which could possibly result in my grade being dropped from the over 100% at which it currently stands to a 69F. This completely discounts the fact that I completed all of my missed course work over that period of time. So the grades which I had to work so hard to obtain would’ve, in essence, been thrown away. This type of scenario is by no means the only one that could happen, a family member could have passed away, or as Brian Duvall mentioned, days could be missed due to educational activities or other special privileges or instances.
So I challenge anyone to explain to me the real-world benefits of this new policy. If the claim is that it will help students with lower attendance records then that is pretty weak. The only thing that can help a student with poor attendance is that student, working harder to makeup that which they have missed.
This policy in my eyes is a misguided attempt to raise attendance hours in the county in order to make it look good. So Iwill leave with this question, to what benefit is increased attendance if in the end grades drop and a student’s hard work is essentially erased due to illness or other extenuating circumstances?
If anyone has a legit response to that question I would be glad to hear it
God Bless
There is a new attendance policy this year at Franklin County High School. If a student misses five or more days for any reason they have to attend Saturday School. In the past the policy had an eleven day cap on un-excused absences. Excused absences were allowed up to 21 days as long as the student could keep up their school work. With the new policy, students are worrying about missing a single sick day even if they can make up the work. This new attendance policy strangles students’ sense of a social life and is causing unnecessary worry and stress.
The new attendance policy is aimed for students who skip school and need to improve with their grades, but the majority of students are being punished. The new attendance policy is ridiculous for students who are doing all the right things. Honor students who never skip and can make up their grades quickly are suffering for their other classmates’ mistakes. Some students can miss a week and catch up in two days on their work. Five days is simply too small of a cap for attendance. There is not even a distinguished difference between an excused and unexcused absence anymore. If a student is skipping school, five days is understandable; but excused absences should still have their rightful place.
The five day strangle takes away the basic privileges of living. If your grandmother dies should you not be able to go to the funeral and not worry about school? If you family decides to see your brother off into the army (like Brent’s family) should you not be allowed to go without worry? There are things in life besides school. The Franklin County School Board is even cutting back on school trip allowances. Some school club trips will be counted against the individual student as an absence. The Model UN team at FCHS responded to this change with, “Oh well! We will just have meetings in Saturday School!” It’s important to trust the students and respect their extra-curricular responsibilities and this policy does the exact opposite.
The most unbelievable aspect of the new attendance policy is the misunderstanding of the need for a sick day, particularly with the H1N1 flu season in full swing. H1N1 causes an average of at least five days of symptoms and one student has been confirmed with H1N1 in Franklin County High School. If you were to get mono miss a month of school you are that guaranteed your next three Saturdays will be spent in Saturday School when you come back. The new attendance policy makes students and parents wary of staying home if they are sick. The key to preventing the spread of sickness is to stay home when one is contagious. All this new attendance policy is doing is creating unwanted stress and probably spreading germs throughout the school.
The new attendance policy is too harsh. Students are not truly benefiting, sickness is circulating more, normal life (such as vacations and family responsibilities) is cut short, and the school board is underestimating the ability of the student. The attendance policy needs to be changed back to eleven days of sick leave with a noted difference between excused and unexcused absences. Schools, come on and give us some freedom. Students, prove to the school board that they can trust you by staying on top of your schoolwork and using your absences wisely.
“True education makes for inequality; the inequality of individuality, the
inequality of success; the glorious inequality of talent, of genius; for
inequality, not mediocrity, individual superiority, not standardization, is
the measure of the progress of the world.” – Felix Emmanuel Schelling,
American educator and scholar (1858-1945).
I liked the analogy that Ethan made. Basically, how would the Superintendent respond if he came back to work after attending a training seminar that he considered the best he had ever been to and was told, “Sorry, we are not going to pay you for your last 9 weeks of work and your pay will also be reduced for the next 9 weeks and, by the way, we are having your pay scale dropped.” Dr. Lackey would probably respond, “You must be kidding! I worked extra hard before I left and have worked very hard since returning. The program was only a week long and I even prepared everyone for my absence.” Their response, “Sorry, that is the policy.” Dr.Lackey- “Just because a policy exists, does not mean it works or is right.” “Sorry, Dr. Lackey, we cannot look into each situation, we have this policy to cover everybody”………… Well, I think you get the gist!!
Power to the People, Fight the Man
Haha Ethan and Chris you are my heroes. I wish that I had thought of that, because there is no way they can answer that without just completely avoiding the question…which they are very good at as shown by the Duvall’s questions and their answers to them.
“Your son must make a choice of attending the program and get an F or attend school.”
What AUDACITY. How DARE they make us choose between staying a mediocre student, or excelling to something we want! Is there even a point to putting posters up encouraging students to “reach their dreams” and offering clubs and teams when they plan to restrict us like this?
“We have to make policies that apply to all students. We can’t make policies to fit every individual student.” And apparently they are very biased to students who don’t want the “help” this policy offers and completely ignorant to anyone else it might affect. If the trouble students are such a big deal, deal with them, but not a the sacrifice of the pride of the school, our sports, our model UN, our governor school kids. The attitude from the school that this policy sends to me is simply “Just deal with it.” Maybe you can’t think of a better solution from last years policy, but I’m telling anyone who’s listening that this school is NOT moving forward. And who would bother to help a school that sends such an indifferent message to it’s students? Make a change.
At this same meeting Dr. Lackey said, “Mrs. Duvall, you haven’t shown me one reason why we should change our policy. You’re going to have to trust us to make the best decision for your children because we have experience with this.” Out of frustration, Carol said, “So what you’re telling me is that my only option is to go to the media and make the public aware of this policy?” Dr.Lackey’s reply… “We’re totally fine with you going to the media. We feel that we have a good policy in place.”
So, they are aware of this effort to educate the public on this issue. I’m sure they would love to have your input. Please call their office to voice your concerns and ask that they adopt changes to the policy that protect the students.
The attendance policy is not rediculous. You people are rediculous. I’m a senior at Franklin County High school right now and all I have to say is get over it! Come to school. Send your child to school. Saturday school is not a punishment for missing school, it is your opportunity to make up missed hours of classes. Parents keep complaining that their children can’t help if they get sick, which is understandable, but if you’re getting that sick, that often, then clearly you don’t have good hygene and don’t understand how to properly wash your hands to prevent the spread of germs. To miss 5 days of school in a nine weeks you have to miss one day every other week. If you’re so sick that you actually miss 5 days in a row of school, you NEED to go to the doctor and as a parent, if you don’t take your apparently dealthy ill child to the hospital, then you need to be charged with child neglect. If you go to the doctor and acquire a doctor’s note, then you’re going to get an attendance waiver. If your child gets suspended from school, they deserve to go to saturday school. Keep your children in line and there wouldn’t be a problem. ISS is not the answer to punishment. Why would you want your child to miss EVEN MORE school? Maybe you should stop complaining about the attendance policy and stop trying to change it and change your children’s behavior and hygeine issues!
Have a nice day
I am currently a Franklin county High School Student in the Top 2 percentile of my class who is enrolled in the Roanoke Valley Governors School. I feel those who have posted here need to step back and take a “deep breath.” I am not saying the attendance policy is perfect, and I am confident it will indeed never be, but I want to stress the fact that one consistent vantage point is being utilized as an argument point here – that of the honors student. I am acquainted with nearly all who have commented and I can relate. We show an increased enthusiasm for school- we wouldn’t be where we were are without motivation and effort. But I must stress the fact here that despite this, our opinions hold the same value as our peers. Sure, to an achieving student this new policy is unfair, for we simply want to make up work. We do not need a “push” from the school system. But this policy could be potentially helping many students. I trust in Dr. Lackey’s judgement and I invite you to take a walk in his shoes. His job is to better our award winning school system and to please the majority, not the top tier of students. I myself often even find some policies frustrating at times, but I must take a step back and re-enunciate this fact. I am not saying this policy is without its flaws, but is that not part of living in a society that, as our founding fathers stressed, is based of popular sovereignty?. Everyone cant always be pleased.
Think about It.
Hi Ben, Thanks for taking the time to comment.
There are more students affected with average grades. A few F’s averaged into the grades of a “C” will not generally mean the difference between getting into the intended university. However, all students should receive the grades they earn! The major point to remember is that any effective part of the policy can remain in a new, improved policy, while discarding any part of the policy which harms. I have now heard from 100′s of students at all levels who have been negatively affected. How is any student helped by taking away their credit for the entire nine weeks even though they have mastered the subject with a passing grade? How would you feel about the policy if you were no longer in the top 2 % because they took away your good grades even though you did all the work and did well on the exams? No student accepts this as fair or reasonable. I am sorry to see your statement about the policy never being perfect: ” I am confident it will indeed never be.” Do you truly feel that excellence is unobtainable? The majority (over 600 petitions for change) have spoken; they should rule! It is a biblical principle, “As ye reap, so shall ye sow.” All the students who “sow” with hard work should “reap” the grades they earned! The state does not require that the students lose credit for missed days. The FCHS policy of taking away credit is what causes the problem.
Thanks for responding Brittany. You ask us to “get over it.” Sorry, if a policy is in place that can reduce kids opportunities and thereby affect his/her success for the rest of their lives, I find it pretty lame not to diligently pursue a change. Although many have spoken to the fact that Saturday School is useless because it does not often even happen until most students have already made up the required work, Sat school is not what we are angry about. I am happy for you that you have apparently never missed 5 days in a nine week period. However, I am a bit surprised that you haven’t had any friends that you know to be very hygienically conscious who missed more than 5 days in a nine week period some time in their school years- it does not need to be 5 days in a row. More importantly, it is a shame that you have not been invited to participate in enriching activities that may have caused you to miss a few days. Also, your comments indicate that you think everyone suspended is a poorly behaved child. Do you really think if someone had used some medicine over the weekend and it remained in his pocket by accident that when he was suspended for it he should get F’s in all his classes? You say ISS is not the answer because he would miss more school. What do you mean? At least ISS- in school suspension usually requires them to actually do work when the class is doing it while regular out of school suspension is truly making them miss more school! The policy needs to change to acknowledge that most FCHS students are great and deserve to get the grades they earn!
I just think it is very interesting how we went from an attitude of “No Child Left Behind” to “Let’s Drag The Children Who Don’t Want To Be Here With Us And Leave The Smartest Ones Behind.” The attendance policy has yet to hurt me, but I know from experience that all it takes is just one accident or illness. One virus that shall take away any chance of getting into anywhere but Western. I am in the top 6% of my class with 2 AP classes and 2 college classes (now complete). I do not want to go to Western… It isn’t where someone with my course rigor is supposed to go. But if I am not careful, or if some idiot maniac driver decides to hit us, leaving either my father or myself injured, my career as a student may as well be over. I don’t deserve to fail due to someone else’s fault, and I certainly don’t deserve to fail due to an illness.
The ones that do deserve to face the consequences, however, are the very ones that are being protected; those with extremely high absences and low desire to be at school. Why do they deserve to do little to no work and pass with a stamp of mediocrity, where I do exceptional work and achieve the same level of recognition and completion? As previously stated, we are promoted the completely incorrect and unintelligible idea that it is sufficient just to show up. It is okay as long as four teachers see your face every day. It is fine to be counted present and to pass with a D and to have a 1.0GPA. What isn’t okay is striving to do your very best in all of your classes, completing all work and tests with exceptional marks, and achieving high levels of recognition within the academic community, just to be stricken down by an undesired absence.
Thank you, Lackey, for protecting the truant, the slacker, and the underachiever.
To anyone who is hurt by this policy, thank you for your support in this matter. May it be stricken from the books, and may you get the grade you truly deserve. And to anyone who was helped by this policy, how fortunate you are. But I have yet to meet one.
-Craig Evan Sales
Brittany-If a Senior in High School can’t spell the word ridiculous properly, perhaps she should spend some time in Saturday School reading a dictionary.
Dr. Lackey Get real. There is no shame in admitting that maybe the policy is not such a good idea. You should be proud that so many top students are working toward being in a good college. But this policy you support and enforce is taking away all chances of that happening. Too bad you are not still in Franklin Co. High School and suffering under the same policy. But then maybe you were not a top student in your High school days. How about it?
In Europe they don’t even have an attendance policy. The exchange students that we had here with us love school. They excel at school because they are trusted. They are graded on their knowledge. Their grades are based on what they have learned in school by their teachers. There is no battle between the administration and the students. These kids are never harrassed over being tardy or missing due to illness. They are not questioned. They are expected to make up any work that they miss. If they choose not to attend it is their loss. They miss out on valuable lessons. At the end of the year, if their grades are poor they are still given a second chance. They are tested at the end of the summer to see if they have improved over the summer and are ready to move forward.. If they pass they move forward. This actually motivates them to study during the summer on their own if they have trouble with grades due to attendance or just lack of understanding. Maybe we could learn from this. The system is working in Europe. The kids are doing great in school and they are successful. Our high school kids are almost adults. Lets give them the chance to be respected and trusted. I mean it is a bit silly that seniors that are 17 and 18 years old are old enough to drive, and the 18 year olds are old enough to vote, yet they still have to ask permission to use the bathroom, or get a drink of water. This type of control along with a ridiculous attendance policy hurts. It’s not condusive to learning and building trusting relationships in society. It only leads to frustration and rebellion.
Wow… I was directed here by the article that I read in the Roanoke Times & World News. I choose to go nameless because I am an educator in a neighboring division. I cannot believe what I am reading. At first, I was ready to point the finger at Mrs. Duvall but then I thought about our attendance policies and the atmosphere at my school. We are here for the advancement of children! If we cannot fill those shoes then we do not need to be in education. We promote and honor outside achievements such as going to leadership academy’s (we as teacher go to them as well). Achievements are conducive to learning.
I do understand that some youngsters need all the classroom time that they can possibly get. I also know that as a parent, situations do come about. Some things are out of our hands, doctors, and anyone else’s who could possibly offer input to the situation. With that being said, the attendance policy sounds and is awful!! I don’t care if the child was suspended or skipped. How does giving that child an F (for missing a day) show how much he knows about the subject matter of the class? The F represents him not coming to school, not an assessment of what he or she knows. We need to assess students on what they know and not on how we feel about missing a day.
In our school, we have students who have valid medical issues. We work with the student to ensure that the subject matter is covered. Our job is to help and if it takes a little more effort than by golly, we need to put forth the effort.
Please grade on learning…. The only lesson that you are teaching the child is to GIVE UP! Some need a second chance………. And a third
I am just curious how a parent is supposed to trust a school board member or director of schools who lacks the basics in grammar? I was somewhat aghast at the responses to parents’ questions. It is difficult to “trust” an educator when that educator is obviously uneducated.
I suppose when one has achieved mediocrity one wishes to make everything mediocre.