OTHELLO — Keeping children in school and getting them back in school when they’ve stopped attending were among the topics of an extensive discussion at the Othello School Board meeting Dec. 9.  

Attendance and getting children ready for school was one part of a review of the Othello School District strategic plan, but John Weisman, instructional improvement director, said education starts with attendance. 

“Before we can focus on mastery of standards before we can focus on being future-ready and graduation, we need (children) at our schools,” Weisman said. 

Desert Oasis High School Principal Josh Tovar said OSD officials regularly review cases pf chronic absenteeism with the help of a “community engagement board” of Othello residents. Most students ending up before the board are in high school or junior high, although elementary students can be referred. 

“(Elementary students) tend to like school at that age,” Tovar said. “Once they get to middle and then high school, school just gets hard and these kids’ deficiencies (are) more transparent, they’re more embarrassed, and then there’s more factors like the social influences that peer pressure brings.” 

District officials have expanded the engagement board concept, adding separate ones at Othello High School, DHS and McFarland Middle School. Through the first four months of the school year, 73 OHS students have been referred, 38 students from DOHS and 19 from MMS.  

Students are considered chronically absent when they have more than two unexcused absences in a month, Tovar said. High school students who miss more than 50% of their classes on a given day are considered absent, he said. 

McFarland assistant principal Jenny Hokanson said MMS also tracks children with a number of excused absences.  

“If we can curb this problem at the middle school, we think the high school will be so much better off,” she said.  

Lutacaga Dual Language Elementary Assistant Principal Paul Oursland said parents of elementary students are contacted when their children have five excused absences in a month. State law mandates what qualifies as an excused absence, he said; it’s not necessarily up to parents.  

Students who continue to miss school can be referred to truancy proceedings through Adams County Superior Court. Tovar said nine students each from OHS and DOHS have gone to court, and two from MMS. 

Tovar said he’s started researching the way regional school districts are dealing with absenteeism at the request of Superior Court Judge Peter Palubicki. The judge is looking for ways to combat chronic absenteeism more effectively, Tovar said.  

“What’s really ironic is that this is a systemic problem across the United States, but yet every county within Washington is doing it a little bit different,” he said.  

In fact, differences are a critical factor in fighting absenteeism, Tovar said. 

“One of the things that we know is that every student is different. Every family is different,” he said. “We have to - as a school, as a system - figure out what really matters to these kids.” 

Othello district officials will be looking at what’s working in other districts and adopting what seems to fit at OSD, he said.  

“No, we do not save every student, but the systems that we’re (implementing), they’re getting stronger,” he said.  

Students don’t start in high school, of course, and Jennifer Garza, the district’s early childhood education director, said teacher training for preschool staff is important as the needs of children change. 

“Every year we seem to get more and more students that sometimes struggle with behaviors, and then we also have our multi-language learners,” Garza said.  

Kindergarteners started the school year apart from other elementary students, with the goal of helping them get used to school. Garza said the policy got what she called mixed reviews. 

“I would say the majority of the teachers really liked it, because they felt like they had a little bit more opportunity to get to know their kids. It was two weeks, and I know that some teachers thought that was too long,” Garza said. 

Oursland said Lutacaga teachers saw positives and negatives but want to keep experimenting with it. 

    What qualifies as an excused absence is set by the state. Lutacaga Elementary officials said not all parents are aware of that.