Page 12 THE EVERETT ADVOCATE – FRiDAy, NOVEmbER 22, 2024 ~ OP-ED ~ Student and Teacher Attendance L ast week’s edition of The Everett Advocate spotlighted how the Everett Public Schools are under serving our students with a failure rate of about 82%, on average across all grade levels. Considering how high these numbers are, the school committee and school administration should all be working overtime to revamp the curriculum and review where the non-academic weaknesses are across the district. The school department published a four slide Instagram last Thursday titled “Why Attendance Matters” for the students. These four points are excellent and should cause a ripple effect of changes throughout the district. The posts description is “Boost learning through school attendance. Showing up to school regularly is crucial for your success. Don’t miss out on key lessons and opportunities. Make attendance a priority.” Being present to learn is essential. This school year, the district is seeing students pushing the maximum allowable days to be absent (18) already and it is not even the holiday or cold season. Are the school personnel not tracking the student attendance for those violating the attendance policy? The district this year is also seeing a high rate of absenteeism by its faculty. According to the teacher’s contract, teachers are not allowed to miss days prior to or after long weekends, yet this school year more students were given free periods the Friday’s before and the Mondays after the long holiday weekends. The district also hired a “glorified babysitter” to sit in the Everett High auditorium at the cost to Everett taxpayers of $90,000 per year, to just sit and make sure the students have a place to go because their teachers are not there for class. While the district is reviewing the student absenteeism, simultaneously it needs to review the faculty absenteeism and take action. Our teachers are making on average $80,000 a year plus an additional $18,000 per year in benefits to teach our kids. They should not be taking days off to extend their weekends at the cost of our students and an even bigger cost to taxpayers. (A teacher making $80,000 a year plus $18,000 in benefits costs the city approximately $550 a day to educate our kids. [98,000 / 180]). Would you pay this kind of money a day to a contractor doing work at your house, who didn’t show up, and billed you for that day’s work? Absolutely not! ATTENDANCE | SEE PAGE 20
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