SPS makes strides to improve district-wide attendance

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — At the start of the school year, Springfield Public Schools (SPS) emphasized students attending school every day and being there on time.

“It’s extremely important for students to be on time every day so they can receive a quality education. Our goal of course is to prepare children for their future and that is a future that they desire and can obtain if they are in school every day, ” said Dr. Grenita Lathan, SPS Superintendent.

Lathan says each school has a target of 90% or better for attendance.

As they wait for the official number for the entire district to come in, one school in particular, held the title for exceptional attendance rates – McGregor Elementary.

For the entire year, McGregor students had the best attendance gains from the previous year, and to motivate students to be in class on time, first-year principal Rebekah Kirby said she wanted to present students with experiences they might have never had before.

“Second quarter we went to Urban Air and Urban Air partnered with us as well and reduced the cost for our students. Third quarter we were a little bit more bold and took the students out to Branson to WonderWorks, it’s a STEM museum and that was a fabulous experience,” said Kirby.

Lathan and Kirby agreed that this effort to promote attendance is just as much responsibility on the parents and students as it is on the schools.

“So attendance is really a team effort. It takes the child wanting to be at school, it takes the parent prioritizing school, and it takes the school working really hard to be a place that is dynamic and that students want to be at,” said Kirby.

She added that McGregor focused on A’s B’s, and C’s of good school habits: attendance, behavior, and class effort.

“We had a variety of incentives that we were working toward but primarily experiences. McGregor serves a disadvantaged community, about 90% of our students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch here and we wanted to offer them opportunities to be able to go do things that they might not have done before,” Kirby said.

For their fourth quarter field trip, Kirby said students went back to Branson but this time they got to be tourists for a day. Students were able to play putt putt golf and check out the aquarium on the boardwalk.

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