Spartan tardy committee enforces new rules in hopes that more students will be in class on time this year.
Teacher Amber Wilson delivers gentle reminder to get to class on time. photo by Rebecca Holt
With the first few days of school completed, most are aware of TJ’s new tardy policy. Teachers school-wide are expressing the benefits of getting to class on time.
This strict new policy includes teacher/student meetings, lunch detentions, calls home, and can even extend to referrals if students are late to class multiple times. “Our goal is to have students in class as much as possible – not to penalize them,” said Principal Sandra Just. “We want to provide support for students to succeed.”
Intervention Specialist and Pass Room Supervisor, Steve Thomas agreed. “I’d just like the students to know that this is not an attempt to make enemies; it’s to help them do the right thing.”
Thomas is also going to the extent of conducting “home visits,” during which he visits the houses of students who are having issues with showing up to class. “I’ve been here nineteen years, and I’ve seen tardy policies done nineteen different ways, and none of them have been effective,” Thomas said. “We need to do two things in order for things to improve: we must demand that the students be on time, and there must be stern consequences for those who don’t comply with the rules.”
The tardy committee is run by JoAnne Moreno and is intended to handle all situations regarding tardiness and absences in the school. Other staffers on the this committee include Eileen Adair, Bill Burns, Samanda Davis, Kyler Jackson, Robert Katz, Grant Laman, Betty Richmeier, and Edward Salazar.
This policy also includes consequences for unexcused absences. The tardy committee has taken into consideration the fact that students will sometimes decide to purposely miss class because they don’t want to suffer the consequences of being late. “If certain students are having frequent unexcused absences, the attendance committee will pull those students from class and create individual plans for them, before the problem gets excessive,” said Just.
Student Advisor Mike Laurita hopes that parents of TJ students will support the school in this new plan. “Their children won’t learn if they are not in class, so their support for this plan also means support for their child’s success,” said Laurita.
According to staff around the school, this new policy has already proven to be more effective than last year’s hall sweeps. “We’ve noticed that kids are starting to hurry to class and that there are fewer stragglers around the building after the bell has rung,” said Just. What the old hall sweep entailed was that if students were found in the hall after class had begun, they were escorted to the lunchroom until the end of the period. “We no longer want students to miss an entire class period just for being late; that doesn’t fix the problem,” said Just.
In previous years, some teachers had their own personal late policies for individual classes, which may have conflicted with school-wide policies. These instances often created confusion on the student’s behalf. This year, the new policy is posted in every classroom and enforced by every teacher in order to avoid such confusion. Laurita said, “This is a general policy that everyone can understand and follow.”
