SANTA PAULA : Absences May Lead to School on Saturdays

Santa Paula High School students who cut class will find themselves going to school on Saturday under a new attendance policy.

School officials started the new policy this year because 15% to 20% of the students were tardy and 6% to 10% were absent each month last year, said Assistant Principal Fran Meek. The district receives about $16 a day for each student from the state and loses the same amount for each unexcused absence, she said.

Ten teachers met over the summer to work out the new policy, which puts the responsibility for attending school on the student, said Assistant Principal Dax Bryson.

On the first infraction, the student will have a conference with his teacher. A second absence will be punished by an hourlong detention and a telephone call to the student’s home. The third time, the student will be referred to the assistant principal and assigned to Saturday school, Bryson said.

If the student does not show up for Saturday School, an in-school detention will be assigned, he said. Detention duty requires teachers to give up their preparation periods to monitor the students, but teachers have volunteered to do it, Bryson said.

The final disciplinary step would be in-school suspension, which Bryson described as closely monitored detention. The advantage of in-school suspension, he said, is the school still receives its regular share of funds from the state because the student is on campus.

Teachers have gone over the rules with students and copies of the new regulations have gone home to the parents, he said.

“There is plenty of fear and trembling and gnashing of teeth” on campus, teacher Basil Augustine said. “I now see students leaping toward their classrooms when they hear that bell.”