Everyday, Major Terry Zuber, ROTC teacher, walks into a classroom with about 10-20% of her students missing – each hour. 

“School is your job as a student and your grades are your paycheck,” Major Zuber said. “No matter what you pursue in your future, this is your framework.”

There are no disciplinary consequences for excused absences, making skipping school easy for students with complying parents. Credit suspensions for absences were discontinued several years ago due to the students who receive high grades, even with low attendance.

“We want our kids to be successful, and at what point does the teacher say ‘hey if you continue to choose to be late, I can’t help you’,” Major Zuber said.

Principal Dr. Steve Hankins said attendance at MHS is low, around 92 percent, and statistically, that takes into account some of last semester/year. The rate is determined by how many people attend school in one day. He said this rate is up to par with all the other high schools in the district.

Dr. Hankins said the National Security Education Program (NSEP), is an educational program in which MHS has been participating in to earn accreditation with distinction. Only small schools have reached it, because of their small population.

One part of NSEP is attendance. The score is determined by if students have attended all their classes 90% of the time. MHS received the lowest score possible for all the categories, but the data used was from last year.

Many students stayed home last year and were told not to come if potentially sick.

“I think parents and kids were over cautious, post pandemic, and I would have rather had them be cautious, then get others sick,” Dr. Hankins said. “Some of that is on us and they were just following our advice.”

Dr. Hankins also said attendance is low because teachers provide more online resources as a result of the pandemic, to catch up sick students.

“So if you’re a kid, well, it’s easier to miss school,” Dr. Hankins said. “It’s good for those kids that are sick, we want to reduce their anxiety, but at the same time, there are some kids realizing that they can miss a day or two without impact.”

Attendance is important for students because it can impact grades, relationships and mental health, said Dr. Hankins.

 “If you look statistically, no matter what, attendance has a direct correlation of performance and that’s across the board. It just does,” Dr. Hankins said.

While MHS has resources to help students with mental health issues and anxiety, Dr. Hankins said the best way to reduce school anxiety is to come to school and stay in a routine. 

“You can’t replace that interaction in a classroom, whether that’s through group work, or whether that’s getting that information from that teacher, on a powerpoint that’s on canvas,” Dr. Hankins said.

There are incentives for good attendance such as the A+ Program that offers scholarships for good attendance that can be used at local community colleges and some other colleges. The school does not plan on bringing credit suspension back, or putting attendance on report cards, because attendance is shown through the grades.

Brooke Lawson, senior, usually leaves school early or takes mental health days. 

“I’ve left school early like a few times because I find that I just can’t get my work done and I struggle to get it done at home,” Lawson said. “So I like to go to restaurants and I find I can just crank out all my work.”

Because it’s her senior year, her absences have only affected her food class, and she makes up labs when she misses. Her human anatomy class is also hard to keep up with but she works to keep up. 

Although attendance has no major consequences, Junior Principal Amy Sturges said students can’t replace the difference in learning in person, and online. 

“As much as technology is awesome and things have evolved over the last couple of years, especially given everything in the past, you still can’t replace the teacher interaction and receiving that one-on-one feedback,” said Sturges.