The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor The Flin Flon School Board is cracking down on hookey even as questions linger over how often students must attend class to earn credit. Trustees expected to have a new, stricter truancy officer in place this week to ensure teenagers are in high school as required. 'It's another step to try and intervene, but we know that that's not the magic answer,' Trustee Glenn Smith told high school administrators at last week's school board meeting. Hapnot Collegiate and Many Faces Education Centre have long employed a family liaison worker who doubles as a truancy officer. Conflicted But it was felt that the enforcement duties of a truancy officer conflicted with those of a liaison worker, whose goal is to work with families to foster better attendance. Hapnot and Many Faces co-principal Bill Pauley said the job of the truancy officer has gotten busier since Manitobans must now legally stay in school until they are 18, not 16. 'That's why we need maybe a truant officer that's going to be a bit more of a heavy-handed sort of person,' said Pauley, also at last week's board meeting, 'because the person we had was supposed to be encouraging kids to be in school and now has to be a cop.' See 'Trustee...' pg. 3 Continued from pg. 1 For Trustee Smith, the issue of truancy ties into his interpretation of provincial rules surrounding attendance and credit for high schoolers. He said more importance should be placed on attendance but the school division's ability to withdraw students from class for not showing up has 'been taken away from us to a certain extent.' 'It's a little dicey on just how somebody can be removed from school for lack of attendance,' Trustee Smith said. Trustee Smith said it is also 'very difficult to just take a credit away from somebody purely on lack of attendance, as far as I understand.' He said there is 'value in students understanding that there is a penalty for not attending.' 'When we had that ability to do that, we would withdraw students from the odd class and they would get a message quite clearly, and so would other students,' said Trustee Smith, a former Hapnot principal. 'And so attendance was very, very high, and the people who were teaching and the people who were in that class understood the importance of actually being in class, and that it wasn't taken lightly.' Impact doubted As for the 2011 law that requires Manitobans to stay in school until age 18, Pauley doubts it will improve attendance as the provincial government hopes. 'I have a personal struggle with the idea that changing that age was going to improve attendance just because they said so,' he said. Pauley said he is hearing more and more parents tell him that they want their child to go to school but feel helpless. 'Early in my career I never heard this so often _ 'I don't know what to do' from the parent,' he told the trustees. 'And they're at wit's end, too, so it's a difficult chore (to improve attendance among certain students).' That said, Trustee Smith noted the new drop-out law 'has some teeth in it' as parents can potentially be charged if their under-18 kids are not attending school. But such laws aside, he said attendance has always been a priority for the school board. 'We really always wanted kids in school. We work hard to get kids in school,' Trustee Smith said. 'It's in our best interests for a whole bunch of reasons. One of them is for financial reasons. We get paid to have students in school. We run schools half-empty, it's not a way to operate. So financially alone (it makes sense), nevermind that kids in school have a better chance of success. That's what we're all about.' That's not to to say every young person under 18 is a welcome addition to the classroom. 'The dicey part is, there are students who have no interest in being in school whatsoever,' said Trustee Smith. 'And in fact there are students who we're nervous of maybe having in school. And (with) those students, we have to be very careful with how we handle that.' Improving attendance was identified as a priority as Pauley and other administrators from Hapnot and Many Faces outlined their 2012-13 goals for trustees. A government spokesperson was asked to clarify the province's policy on high school attendance but could not provide information before The Reminder's press deadline.
