GHS News

Saturday School Provides Final day for the students of Gloucester High School to recover their attendance.

Reporter Summer Smith

On May 18th, from 8am to 12pm the students of Gloucester High School were given their final chance to redeem their attendance record. However, this meant students would have to come in on a Saturday. Waivers were available in the Main office at GHS for a number of weeks, and all those who attended had to submit a waiver for it to count.

Saturday school offers an recovery for attendance to those who attend GHS. Though this opportunity was for everyone, the students it primarily focused on was those with over eight absences by one or two. The sign up for Saturday School began on Monday, April 29th in the Main Office at GHS. Those who attended were required to be present for the entire four hours to receive credit, they also had to be in the building and ready to begin by 8am.

This opportunity allowed for students to gain four full blocks which equals to one full day towards their attendance. The waivers for the Saturday school could be picked up anytime starting on Monday, May 13th. However, the waivers for seniors were due back to attendance between May 20th and May 30th. Where as the grades 9 through 11 were due back between May 20th and May 31st. All those with eight absences or more were required to apply for th waiver. The waivers were not accepted after the 31st of May.

However, something students really struggled with was tardies. Being late to class three times equals one unexcused absence. The amount of tardies they received added on top of absences ended up being quite a lot for most students. This required them to go overboard on absences. This also meant they would be spending four hours of their Saturday at GHS in order to make up for those absences.

The new attendance policy had many rallied up at the beginning for the year. Most believed it wasn’t fair to fail those who managed to keep up in their classes and still be absent. However, those absences for most were excused. Others didn’t preferably have an opinion on the issue, while others felt more strongly about it. Though for the first year of this new policy, the amount of those needed to attend Saturday school just to pass classes was very high.