By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
St. Joseph School District officials are trying something different to increase classroom attendance at four schools that had the lowest attendance in the district last year.
Assistant Superintendent for Academics, Ashly McGinnis, says the effort is targeted at parents of students at Lindbergh Elementary, Carden Park Elementary, Robidoux Middle School, and Lafayette High School.
“This attendance incentive is strictly focused on parents. And at the end of the day, parents are the ones who get their kids to school,” McGinnis tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. “Whether that be physically driving them to school or walking them to the bus or even just getting them out of bed and forcing them to go to school.”
Past financial incentives to increase school attendance had targeted the students.
McGinnis says a generous donor provided $4,000 to the district to pay for incentives to increase attendance. One parent of students at each of the four schools will be awarded a $500 gift card. Schools throughout the district also have a budget dedicated to increasing attendance.
Last school year, Lindbergh Elementary School had the lowest attendance rate at only 63.52%. Nearby Lafayette High School had an attendance rate of 64.25% last year with Carden Park Elementary at 69.98% and Robidoux Middle School at 71.74%.
Many factors can play a role in poor student attendance, but one common thread seems to run through those four schools.
“St. Joe has a high free and reduced lunch rate across the district, but I would say it’s more prevalent in those four schools, just some unique challenges with poverty,” McGinnis says. “There may be some other variables with parents not seeing the value of education as opposed to some of the other schools.”
There is a financial incentive for the St. Joseph School District to increase its attendance rate. The state of Missouri expects a 90% attendance rate and penalizes district that don’t achieve that goal. The St. Joseph district had improved student attendance with its Stive for Five program a few years ago, but then came COVID-19. Attendance rates plummeted. Even an improvement in 2023, when the attendance rate hit 78.9%, couldn’t be sustained, falling to 77.56% in 2024.
Yet, the biggest incentive McGinnis sees is academic. Poor attendance and poor academic performance go hand-in-hand.
“I’m a former math teacher and math concepts constantly build on top of each other,” McGinnis says. “So, when students miss those foundational lessons, it makes it that much more difficult to come back.”
That applies to teaching reading and writing as well, McGinnis says.
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