The Garfield Re-2 School Board had a discussion on student wellness during its April 23 meeting and how they’re planning to try and improve it even more. 

Assistant Superintendent Lisa Pierce presented districtwide data showing a 95% average attendance rate.

“All schools are in the 90s,” said Heather Grumley, superintendent, about the statistics.

Pierce confirmed the district met its 95% attendance goal for the year, adding that the target for next year is 96%.

“I just want to shout out the 99% (attendance rate) at Coal Ridge (High School),” said board member Chance Jenkins. “I mean, I don’t know if it’s statistically possible to get better. I mean, you’re never going to have 100%.”

Pierce agreed, saying that the next step is to look at students that are chronically absent. 

“When you’re chronically absent, it’s the basic skills that start to fade,” she said. “You don’t practice, you don’t use it, you start to lose it.”

Students with 12 or more absences due to illness — a growing concern during the recent flu season — must have a parent meeting with school staff to develop a personalized plan.

“They go through and lay out a specific plan about strengths, concerns,” Pierce said. “We ask, “Is anyone bullying you”, because a lot of times when kids have ongoing chronic absences, there’s something else going on, it may be bullying, it may be that they’re behind in their learning, they can’t do the work, so they don’t want to go, they’re embarrassed, there’s a lot of things that can cause an absence.”

The plans are beginning to be tailored to each student. 

“I would absolutely entertain any conversations with parents who would like to see how we can change that,” Pierce said. “Make it better, make it more individualized, I think we’re ready for that.”

Pierce also addressed how certain absences and disciplinary actions are reported to the state.

“What we’ve discovered is that it depends on the consequences,” Pierce said. “If a student is losing learning time because they’re in an in-school suspension, out of school suspension, that’s a state reported incident.”

Pierce emphasized that part of the problem is that while they don’t want students losing learning time, they also must address disruptive behavior.  To help maximize instructional time, several schools in the district began implementing personal device restrictions in January.

Students who bring their phones to school are having them collected or putting them in a pouch designated for them in a classroom to decrease the amount of time they have their personal devices, but it’s different from elementary schools to high schools and from the individual schools themselves. 

Pierce said some students, particularly at Coal Ridge High School, have embraced the policy by voluntarily leaving their phones at home, in their cars or in lockers. Others, she noted, attempt to hide their devices.

“We’ll come back together one more time to solidify, mostly with Rifle High School, because they’re the one making a big change come fall,” Pierce said. “They already dabbled in it this year, which is why they didn’t want a full implement in January…it will be a change for Rifle High School students next year.”

Jenkins noted the positive impact of the policy that he has seen during recent school visits to Riverside Elementary and Coal Ridge High School at lunchtime, it’s noisy and it was amazing to hear. 

Following this update came a summary of disciplinary actions in the school district. 

“What we really want from kids, when they get in trouble, is to own what they did and make it right,” Pierce said. “That’s what we’ve defined as our restorative practice, in order to help our kids to learn from the mistakes around discipline, so that is an actual part of the consequences, is what will we do to make it right and making sure the kids understand why it was not okay in the first place.”

Pierce said this is mostly for the younger students, because the older students know it was wrong, but this will help them understand how to make it as right as they can. 

“Sometimes you try to figure out a different way to do the same thing,” said board vice president, Fathom Jensen.