Dear Parents, Guardians, and Students,
Research has shown attendance has a direct relationship with student achievement. This has been an area of focus at Chesterton Academy over the last two years. With your help, we grew our daily attendance rate from 86% to 95% last year. This year, we have a 97% daily attendance goal.
However, this semester, we have been experiencing an increased amount of student tardiness both in the morning and throughout the day during class transitions. The tardiness has become habitual for many students, causing them to miss course material and to disrupt the learning of others.
In order to provide the best learning experience for both our students and teachers, in addition to instilling healthy life habits, we will be implementing a new accountability system starting Nov. 1.
We recognize there are legitimate reasons (weather, traffic, car trouble, etc.) for a student to be late. Therefore, for each type of tardy, we will allow students four unexcused tardies. However, once the student earns their fifth unexcused tardy, we will require him or her to attend the next available Saturday school, which is held from 9 a.m. until noon.
Parents and Guardians, we thank you for everything you do to assist your student in being punctual. We want to ensure we provide the best learning environment possible, and we are committed to helping our students learn the time management skills to be successful in adult life. We thank you for supporting those goals.
Our deans will be visiting with students this upcoming week (Oct. 23 – 27) to explain the policy in greater detail. If you have any questions, please contact our deans, Mrs. Theresa Krueger and Mr. Thomas Finke.