The Willow Glen Resident Photograph by Skye Dunlap Talking Heads: Marivel Lara, Adrian Kirk and Sara Arevalo discuss attendance problems and solutions at Willow Glen High. Such meetings have become a weekly event since Pat Day took over as principal. WG High School officials launch attack against truancy problems at their root Administrators improve attendance through tough love By Mary Spicuzza When the sixth-period bell rings out over Willow Glen High School's campus after lunch, Principal Pat Day can breathe a little bit easier these days. A few late students can still be seen shuffling to class, but school grounds are much quieter as teachers launch into their afternoon lesson plans. "When I came here, we had problems with kids on athletic teams, who were supposed to be in practice, just hanging out on campus," Day says. "It sets a bad example for the younger students. If you're on campus, you're going to be in class." Making sure athletes don't abuse their privileges is only a small victory in Willow Glen High School administrators' multi-pronged attack on truancy. Until last year, attendance percentages were on a downward slide. During the 1996-1997 school year, nearly half of Willow Glen High's 1,500 students were considered to have a high rate of absenteeism. By national standards, that means missing more than 16 days out of the school year. Since the fall of 1997, when Pat Day took over as principal, staff have been pooling resources and recruiting assistance from a slew of sources, including teachers, parents, psychologists and law enforcement officials. While the soft-hearted may worry the school is taking a Big Brother approach to keeping kids in school, attendance has consistently improved each month since Day launched his aggressive anti-truancy campaign more than a year ago. "As soon as I started, we picked attendance as something to focus on," Day says. "When I came here and looked at the statistics, it immediately jumped out that attendance was a real problem." When Day took over as principal, about half of the student body had missed more than 16 days of school during the 1996-1997 school year. Last year that number dropped to 37 percent. Each month since the campaign began in August 1997, the percentage of enrolled students attending classes has continued to climb. Now a think tank of truancy-fighting masterminds come together each Thursday morning in roundtable strategy meetings. Day, along with Adrian Kirk, assistant principal for discipline and attendance, and Demerris Brooks, assistant principal for guidance, bring together specialists from various committees to look at each student's problems and brainstorm solutions. "We're trying to bring all of the pertinent eyes together to look at each student," Kirk says. Strategies include a Student Assistance Program (SAP), which works with teachers to look at providing tutorials for frustrated students. Administrators, realizing that teachers can provide insight on academic problems, hope that they can help find solutions to keep struggling students in class. While reaching out to teachers, staff also hopes to include parents in the mix. Whenever parents visit campus for any reason, administrators show them their child's transcripts and attendance records. Counselors from Gardner Health Center's mental health services unit are available on campus each week, giving students another resource to discuss problems. With an absence of school counselors, Kirk hopes pooling community resources and bringing them on campus can help students work through underlying issues that may be causing truancy. Off campus, Principal Day credits the San Jose Police Department's Truancy Abatement and Burglary Suppression programs (TABS) for picking up teens skipping class and delivering them safely back to the principal's office. According to SJPD Sgt. Derek Edwards, a January sweep near Yerba Buena High School on a Friday afternoon yielded a crop of 100 roaming students. No current TABS statistics are available for Willow Glen. If those programs don't work, the Guided Out Placement (GOP), moves students to another school that can better meet their needs. "It sends a message that if you are here and not performing, it's not okay," Kirk says firmly. Willow Glen's attendance-boosting campaign recently got a boost from a new mediation program launched by the San Jose Unified School District. Day and Kirk attended the first evening session at the end of January, which brought together administrators, parents, students, law enforcement officials and folks from the Santa Clara County district attorney's office. "It's an important breakthrough for networking," Day says. "Some parents just didn't know who to talk to." With more enrolled students attending class, Kirk says that a new tutorial system will soon be in place. He now hopes to focus boosting students' academic achievement to keep them in class. Taking a break from explaining the complex infrastructure of the truancy battle strategy, Day eases out of his role as disciplinarian to let his softer, more philosophical side come through. "Looking at attendance is a good way to find other issues," Day says. "Usually it's not just truancy, but other issues like trouble with academics, transportation problems, age issues. Kids all have different problems, so we're trying to use every mechanism we have to work for solutions." [ Back to Contents Page | Willow Glen Resident Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Willow Glen Resident, February 10, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.