Student Incentive Days

By Trevor Rogers
We are constantly looking at ways that we can improve our schools. School improvement can follow many formats from facilities, to programs, to environment. One way that we are trying to improve the environment of the school district is to encourage better performance from our students. The dates of May 31, June 1, and June 2 have been set aside as “student incentive days.” Standards have been set regarding student academic performance, student behavior, and student attendance so that students meet the set standards, they will not have to attend school on these days.
Specific criteria for each category of standards are that students:
Have passing grade averages for the 3rd and 4th grading periods
Have no more than three days of “In School Suspension”
Have not been suspended or sent to alternative school for the second semester
Have no more than three unexcused absences the second semester where students provided no notification from parents or had a doctor’s excuse
All students are welcome to attend on these days, however, those not meeting the above criteria must attend. To ensure that we have planned for food service and transportation, the district will send forms to parents who want their student to come even if the child has met the standards.
Students who are required to attend but do not will be asked to report to summer school to make up the number of incentive days they missed. Failure to attend summer school could lead to more severe consequences such as tru¬ancy charges. While the last thing we want to do is to file truancy on anyone, the process must have some “teeth” to it in order to provide the incentive that we want. Again, the goal of the incentive days is to improve student performance by encouraging students to come to school, to act appropriately, and to work hard to pass their classes. Students and parents were notified at the beginning of the semester about incentive days so that they would be aware of the goals and try to achieve them. As with any new idea, we are sure that some of you may have questions. Please let us know if you do. We thank you for your help and support as we continue the process of making L-KCISD the best it can be!
Trevor Rogers is superintendent of Linden- Kildare CISD.