Franklin High School cracks down on attendance, tardiness, vaping

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Franklin High School cracks down on attendance, tardiness, vaping

The board of education approved changes to the Franklin High School student handbook. File photo

The Macon County Board of Education approved revisions to student and staff handbooks for several schools at its July 22 meeting, with the most significant changes coming for students at Franklin High School.

“We’re trying to tighten up the screws and make sure that we’re preparing these kids to be successful after Franklin High School,” said Assistant Principal Daniel Gibson.

Perhaps the biggest policy change will be for attendance at the high school. According to Gibson, the previous attendance policy allowed for eight days of unexcused absences. After a student accrued more than eight absences, those had to be made up at a learning center — additional classroom time after school in which teacher supervise students from 3:15-4:50 p.m. The problem was that students could make up time for all absences beyond the eight-day mark.

At the July 22 meeting, Gibson shared some of the more stunning examples of how students took advantage of this attendance policy.

“We had a student that just graduated with 37 absences,” said Gibson. “They had 37 absences, and they still passed the class with a B-plus.”

“I’m sorry, but if you miss a third of the semester, theoretically, you’ve missed so much information there’s no way you should be able to get a B-plus in that class,” Gibson went on.

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In public comment to the board during the July 22 meeting FHS teacher and school board candidate John DeVille called out these learning centers as “farcical” and a “charade” compared to true instructional time.

“You got 30 students in a room, it’s almost impossible for one teacher to proctor and really assist those 30 students coming from 30 different classes,” DeVille said. “We have students who basically abuse this. They listen to videos, music. We’ve had one student alone this past spring attend 40 learning centers and still get credit for that class. We had over 40 students miss over 20 days of class and still receive credit.”

Gibson said that “quite frankly, if we’re just being completely honest, these students just have way too many opportunities to make up days. If you can miss 30 some days and be able to make up 25 of them and still pass a class, there’s some issues.”

The new policy will allow for 10 unexcused absences. After 10 absences, school administration will call a meeting with the family. Part of that meeting will be to ensure the family understands that absences 11 through 15 can be made up using the after-school learning centers. However, under the new policy if a student goes beyond 15 absences for any class, they automatically receive a 49 grade for the class, meaning they are not eligible for credit recovery and will have to take the class over.

Gibson pointed out that in the upcoming fall semester there are 72 instructional days, not counting exams. If a student misses 15 days, they will have missed 20.38% of the semester. In the spring semester, there are 85 instructional days not counting exams, and with 15 absences a student would miss 17.64% of the semester.

“If I miss one out of every five days, I’m not going to be the assistant principal at Franklin High School very long,” said Gibson. “We are charred with preparing these kids for life after Franklin High School, we need to start doing that.”

There will be a waiver process in place for extreme circumstances.

The new attendance policy also changes qualifications for exams. As it stands now, students who have an A in a class are exempt from teacher-made exams, but not state-mandated exams. Now, even if a student has an A in a class, if they have more than five absences in a class, they will not be eligible for exemption from that final exam.

“We’re not going to reward you for laying out from class,” said Gibson.

Policy is also changing for tardiness.

“I had freshmen that had 43 tardies and still passed the class,” said Gibson. “So we’re going to tighten that up too.”

Now, if students is late to class three times, they will have to stay after school for a learning center. This will not count for time, or make up an absence, but essentially works as a detention. After the fifth tardy, there will be a suspension of privileges which can include parking.

The new policy does not allow students to wear headphones in class unless instructional time is over, and a teacher permits students to listen to music.

Penalties for vaping are also strengthened in the updated handbook. In the past students have received in school suspension and out of school suspension for vaping, but now the penalty can include suspension for extracurricular activities.

“You’re not going to take away from what we’re trying to do here and still have your privileges,” said Gibson. “Being a student athlete, being a member of FFA, being a member of FBLA is a privilege, it is not a right. If you’re going to represent FHS, we want to make sure we’re putting our very best foot forward.”

The school board approved changes to the student handbook unanimously.

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