CENTERBURG — Agriculture teacher Matt Weade recently left a Centerburg Local Schools meeting in awe.

The gathering focused chronic absenteeism — and how the district planned to combat it.

Centerburg Local Schools voluntarily participated in Each Child On Track in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years, a state program targeting at-risk students.

Weade is part of the district leadership team, a sub-group of the Each Child On Track program. The team is focused on leading and monitoring new career lessons for students and making career education more prevalent.

The district received a $50,000 grant to participate in the program, superintendent Ryan Gallwitz said. The grant was to help pay stipends for the program’s success.

District leaders, teachers and staff looked at what was keeping kids from being successful. Chronic absenteeism was the main focus for the first year-and-a-half of this plan, Weade said.

Chronic absenteeism is classified by the state as having 50 hours or more of excused or unexcused absences. Missing school has been shown to decrease academic success.

At the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, roughly 33% of high school students in Centerburg were chronically absent, Gallwitz said.

“If the kids are not in the seats, they cannot learn, and they cannot be successful,” Weade said. “I remember how shocking the numbers were when we first started looking at the absenteeism issues.”

Weade said he knew the district had issues in the past with chronic absenteeism, but seeing the data was shocking.

Now that the problem is well-known and visible, it’s time to find solutions.

How the plan works at Centerburg

Ohio’s State Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP) builds the capacity of district and school personnel to implement an early warning system before frequent absents become chronic, according to the program’s website.

Each Child On Track is implemented through Ohio State Support Teams (SST.) The support teams work alongside the school district and staff to embed Each Child On Track in the improvement process.

Different teams were formed from SSIP, including district leadership teams, building leadership teams and teacher leadership teams.

The support teams focused on the 6-12 grade building with 297 students, 30 with disabilities, also known as individualized education plan.

The percentage of students with disabilities who graduated with a regular diploma in the 2020-21 school year was 73%, according to Ohio Department of Education and Workforce data.

Another factor in increasing attendance rates is district family liaison Tim Rioux.

Rioux has been in that position for three years at Centerburg Schools, working previously at Lucent Technologies management until 2018. He also coaches travel and high school sports.

Rioux’s role as a family liaison is to be an advocate for students and families at Centerburg Schools. This translates to making attendance a priority for academic, social, post-graduation and employment success.

“It’s also important that the issue of attendance is constantly a visible priority to everyone in the district,” Rioux said. “I also monitor student attendance daily and communicate with families as necessary.”

Rioux finds success as the family liaison by constantly communicating directly to students and families on why attendance is critical during the school year.

Looking at attendance rates

In the spring of 2023, Centerburg Supt. Ryan Gallwitz sent a newsletter to the school community, staff, students and families. The newsletter shared attendance data and how it needs to improve district-wide.

The goal for next school year, Gallwitz said, was to develop leadership teams surrounding attendance rates, why students were missing school and battling the points of concern.

Centerburg teachers assigned mentors for check-ins with students, sending at-home letters to family members or guardians and providing interventions.

The results were notable.

In 2023-24 school year, the off-track student’s attendance rate was at 10%; students with disabilities were under 10%.

  • Quarter 2: Absenteeism was around 15%; students with disabilities were at nearly 30%.
  • Quarter 3: Absenteeism was at 11.6%; students with disabilities were at 18.75%.

Centerburg teachers doing the heavy lifting

Weade said teacher-based teams (TBT) were a significant proponent of increasing attendance rates.

“When the teachers were given the data (on chronic absentee rates), we knew we had work to do,” Weade said.

“Watching teachers come up with plans and ideas on how to get kids back excited about school and being in class was fun to watch.”

Also, teachers became invested in the leadership teams, reaching out to students with attendance issues by building strong relationships with them, Weade said.

For some kids, greeting them at the door with a smile is enough, high school principal Brent Garee said.

“(It) truly was the teachers that did the heavy lifting here,” Garee said.

“If a kid feels cared about, they will come to school. My group understands that and I feel that simple realization was the basis of our attendance improvement at Centerburg.”

Ways of improvement

Weade recalled a specific district leadership team meeting in the winter was a lightbulb moment for the staff.

“It finally clicked,” Weade said. “We knew our purpose.”

Weade said the whole process will continue to improve as leadership teams continue to work and learn more.

Also, he believes teacher buy-in will be even larger this year. The staff saw improvement and is geting on board with the process.

“I think once we get the process in place and all the tools we are developing working together, our success will go as far as our effort will allow,” Weade said.

Rioux said it’s a collaborative effort with school staff, administration and the Ohio Department of Education.

“Students need to know I care about them, they need to know the school cares about them,” Rioux said. “Students and families need support from the district with not just academics, but also with social and life skills such as organization, preparation, career and work ethics.

“I also make home visits if a family wants to meet and talk about their children.”