Winter is rapidly approaching in which students are staying busy attending classes, extra-curriculars, and most are working. Even though it’s not winter yet, sickness has started to spread around the school and will continue throughout the rest of the school year. It seems that sick students should be staying home to recover, but missing school can be challenging for most.
Last year, Sentinel tried a different bell schedule, starting later in the morning and ending later in the afternoon. However, many students were confused about the start time on Thursday, which was a late start rather than early out. Melissa Olsen, attendance secretary at Sentinel High School, notes, “Attendance was really bad when we had a late start. Thursdays were a nightmare… They were all different days and that was really crazy because nobody remembered when they were supposed to be here.”
This became an important issue that Sentinel chose to update their schedule this year, with school starting at 8:35am and an early out on Thursday. Not only did the Board of Trustees choose to revamp MCPS’s schedule, but policies were also changed to be strictly enforced.
This transition was difficult for most students. Not only did the phone policy (video) become more strict, but the attendance policy seemingly became mandatory. Missoula County Public Schools have boundaries on attendance where Attendance Works has research on chronic absenteeism that can provide resources for parents on how to take action.
The issue surrounding low attendance is that it is necessary for the school to obtain state financial reimbursement under attendance laws. The districts must report the Average Number Belongings for each school within their district twice annually (October and February), in which the ANB for the district’s high school accounts for about 4,000 students, totaling $8000 for a high school student. With this, Sentinel High School (and MCPS) allows six absences per semester that involves an intervention and ten absences triggers chronic absenteeism.
According to Dana Young, assistant principal at Sentinel High School, the high school numbers in chronic absenteeism have been slowly rising since 2021. However, the MCPS district numbers are getting better, in which the best attendance is found at the elementary level. The Sentinel High School attendance data can only be found in numbers, not the reasons for excused absences, so she is unable to confirm that it is due to illness at Sentinel.
The attendance clerk, Melissa Olsen, didn’t work full time before COVID, but describes attendance shortly after the pandemic. She finds that illnesses occur all year round, but it was especially high when school started since students were outside during summer to then being in close proximity to one another in classrooms.
Teachers would be out sick since she had attendance for the substitutes, and she knew what illness was going through that class when parents would call in. “Like one person came to school sick in that class and gave it to the teacher and seven other kids, and they’re all out at the same time.” She also noticed that there’s confusion between symptoms of colds and COVID when testing since both still go around. Olsen recommends that students stay home when they don’t feel well and to wait 24 hours after symptoms have vanished to avoid spreading the illness.
Many know how to avoid becoming sick since it’s been instilled since elementary school. Wash hands, eat healthy, rest well, drink water, and repeat. Unfortunately, this practice has slowly deteriorated as students get older because missing classes is worse than showing up with a headcold. Sentinel High School has started to crack down on its attendance policies, attempting to increase student presence like how it was pre-COVID.
When policies and schedules appear to be changed, one thing is reoccurring: illness. It may be a common cold, flu, fever, or other contagious virus that spreads around the school. Respiratory illness season is approaching fast as officials warn people to take precautions. Cases of the flu are also expected to increase, so a flu shot is recommended. Sentinel High School does have a nurse on campus, along with the other Missoula County Public High Schools.
Missoula County Public Schools follow the CDC health regulations in order to keep a clean and healthy environment. However, Olsen believes the regulations transformed with the new administration. It’s important that students stay healthy to become more successful academically and keep a consistent attendance.
While the workload is piling up, so are the tissues. Students spend about seven hours daily in school, and continue with their homework or extracurricular activities after. Stressful deadlines, sports events, work, and more can have dire consequences on students’ sleep habits. This in turn impacts not only their mental health but also physical well-being. There are only so many hours in a day, and for some, not enough to maintain a healthy balance in their lifestyle.
Something important to remember is to slow down and take a moment to rest and recharge. Most tend to overwork themselves to the point of exhaustion, which will never end well. While calling out sick isn’t ideal, it’s worse for someone to go about their day when they’re feeling under the weather. For some, it may not be an option for their parents to excuse them from classes, but they should do their best to go about their day safely and isolated. While sharing is caring, in this case, there’s plenty of precautions one can take to avoid spreading the sickness.
