Next week, Dec 18 – 20, is finals week. Students will be exempt for maintaining an 80% or higher in their classes with 3 or fewer absences, or a 90% or higher with 6 or fewer absences. Absences need to be marked as excused to not count against students. Finals are mandatory for students not meeting the incentives.
“This year, students have to take their finals,” associate principal Jessica Ray said. “They have to either take it during the final exam time, or they’re going to have to take it in the spring during a Wednesday school or a Saturday school, or they’ll have an incomplete and they won’t get credit for the class until they take their final.”
Students who fail to complete their final(s) will receive an incomplete for the course until taken.
“Our main goal is for students to be at school,” Ray said. “There’s something called compulsory attendance, which the state gives us, students have to be in attendance 90% of the time, or they go to court.”
Therefore, the school makes it an incentive to go to school, allowing students a chance to be exempt from finals and start Christmas break early. Compulsory attendance means students can not have more than 8 days unexcused under the age of 19 per semester without being taken to court. The number of days varies on the total days per semester.
“Taking your final is not a punishment,” Ray said. “We have to have students here so many hours, so many days in a year for them to get credit, and so this is a way for them to make that up.”
Attendance is mandatory Dec 16 – 17, those who are absent those days are required to take all final exams.
The most common types of attendance codes:
*BB – student was in the building but not in class (counseling center, testing, tutorials, etc); does not count against the incentive.
*CD – college day visit; does not count against the incentive.
*DF – immediate family (parent, sibling, grandparent) funeral; does not count against the incentive.
*DL – appointment at the DMV; first absences do not count against the incentive, future absences do count against the incentive.
*DR – a note was brought in for a PARTIAL day absence due to a medical appointment; does not count against the incentive.
*F2 – a parent notified the office the student was absent due to family reasons; counts against incentive.
*FT – field trip; does not count against the incentive.
*GF – funeral attendance; counts against incentive.
*IL – a parent notified the office the student missed due to illness; counts against incentive.
*ME – student left for a doctor’s appointment, note was not turned in; counts against incentive.
*P2 – student was absent for a school-sponsored event; does not count against the incentive.
*PR – parent requested absence; counts against the incentive.
*SP – student was absent for a school-sponsored event; does not count against the incentive.
*TR – your student was marked truant for a class, this was accounted for by an administrator; and counts against incentive.
*UN – an unexcused absence that was not cleared by a parent phone call; counts against incentive.
Fall Semester Exam Schedule: Here
