ATTENDANCE POLICY
ATTENDANCE POLICY
For Apex Arts magnet students, Apex+ is considered a part of the regular school day, not an after-school or extra-curricular activity. The cancelation of such activities at the home high school do not necessarily mean that Apex+ will be canceled. If there is an Apex+ cancelation, you will hear it specifically addressed in a ConnectEd message, and students hours for that session will be waived.
If your student is absent from school, or you know your student will be absent from Apex+, please let the Apex+ Teacher Specialist know in advance. Absence notifications are not shared to Studio 39 from Annapolis or Broadneck High School.
Since Apex+ credit is in the form of hours earned, when a student is absent, excused or otherwise, they still need to earn 45 hours.
Students have an opportunity to make up for missed Apex+ time as highlighted below.
If a student misses the first two to three classes of any course, consecutively, they are recommended to drop the class. In this case, students can be more successful if they enroll in a course at a different time.
Due to the nature of our projects being collaborative in nature, and Applied Arts classes being skills acquisition, it is imperative that students are in attendance regularly. If a student misses three or more classes, they risk being dropped from the class to enroll at a time where their absences can be less regular.
It is vital that students are in class on time and for the full duration of the class.
A student will be marked tardy if they arrive at the workstation after class begins. The only exception to this is if a bus is late arriving to Studio 39. Tardiness will result in deduction of time from the class session. Class sessions are 1 hr and 15 min in length. Every minute a student is tardy from class is deducted from that time.
If a student must be dismissed early from an Apex+ session, the amount of time out of class is deducted from the class session.
In cases where an Apex+ class or day has to be canceled by the Apex Arts Office or school system, by no fault of the student, the Apex+ Teacher Specialist will waive the hours for that class or that day. Reasons a class or day might be waived include:
Inclement Weather where travel has been deemed unsafe from AACPS.
A Guest Artist is unable to teach their class, a substitute cannot be obtained, and a virtual option for the class is unavailable.
The school building (or classroom) where the Apex+ course takes place needs to close and other arrangements for class space cannot be arranged.
Students who miss an Applied Arts class (non-music) or a Project day have two options for making up the missed face-to-face time.
One way students can ensure they earn their 90 hours is in registering for enough courses across all three trimesters. We always encourage students to plan for additional hours across all three trimesters.
Virtual Lab Projects are offered in an asynchronous virtual module format through Brightspace, allowing students the flexibility to opt in to their choice of project(s) at the time of their choice. By opting in to a Virtual Lab Project students can make up missed face-to-face hours, and/or can earn additional hours beyond their face-to-face Apex+ Schedule.