Mason County October Spotlight

School Spotlight! Thanks to the Community In Schools Program, Leon Elementary was able to open the Lions General Store.  Leon is located in a rural area, and the closet clothing store is a 30-minute drive away.  Many of the students' families have one vehicle and rely on public assistance programs.  The store is used for accidents, students in need, and as an award system.  The pantry is stocked with clothes, shoes, hygiene supplies, school supplies, make up, backpacks, and more.  The pantry provides students with a shopping experience.  The pantry is supported through donations from local Dollar General Store, churches, and other businesses.   At Point Pleasant Intermediate School, we encourage parents and students that #AttendingIsWinning and endorse that “showing Patriot Pride with regular attendance creates success in school, life and their future.” As the Communities In Schools Site Coordinator, I work with families to help reduce barriers at home or school that may affect attendance and academic needs with the intent to help create and support a successful education. While working with families and students directly to address needs and providing multiple supports to support attendance is an important piece of the puzzle, who doesn’t like a little friendly competition? In the spirit of promoting our “Attending Is Winning” campaign, I created a healthy attendance competition amongst students that helped play a role in decreasing our chronic absenteeism by 5.5%, taking it from 19.5% to 14% over the last couple years. I launched the idea in the 2023-2024 school year and then made additions and improvements for the 2024-2025 school year. Throughout the year, the classrooms in each grade level compete each month for the attendance banner and to hang the banner outside the classroom as a badge of honor for bragging rights. Additionally, the classroom winners are spotlighted on the bulletin board by the cafeteria for all to see. Each grade level consists of 3-4 classrooms, so they like to get competitive! Each classroom winner in their grade level is determined by which has the highest attendance percentage for that month. In addition to winning the banner, the classroom also gets an extra recess or other appropriate reward that is supervised by CIS, counselor and admin so that the classroom teacher also earns an extra planning. Win win! Not only do the classrooms have the opportunity to earn bragging rights, but individual students do as well. In addition to the classroom banners, the individual student(s) in each grade level have the chance to earn Attendance VIP (Very Important Patriot) of the month, earning a certificate and their name displayed on the attendance spotlight bulletin board. This award is given to the student with the highest attendance percentage in their grade level for that month. Much to my surprise, multiple students tied for this each month! I’ve already had students for this school year tell me they have the goal of wanting to win that award. I am anxious to see how this year goes and hope to see continued success. Regardless, the students are having fun while doing it and sometimes, that is half the battle. Celebrating attendance awareness month in September is a great way to start out the year.  It helps to educate parents and send a spotlight on the importance of attendance.  At Point Pleasant Primary School, we started the first week in September with dress up days, and a contest to include parents on why school is important for Super Heros.  Our attendance theme this year is focused on Superhero's.  By attending school everyday we are creating superheroes.  In Guidance class we discuss attendance and arriving to school on time.  We also emphasis that the type of superheroes we are creating are not those that fly, disappear, or have laser eyes.  Our superhero training school focuses on superheroes that arrive to school on time everyday to learn to be good readers, solve math problems, are kind, considerate, friendly, have good manners, follow the rules and are good listeners.  Prizes are given each week to the classroom with the highest attendance rate for that week.  One prize will be given to a student in every class for the drawing contest.  Educational materials will be sent home this month weekly regarding why attendance is important, when to keep your child home, and spotlighting Mason County Family Support Center and the services they provide.