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March 2006
Dear Parents:
The purpose of this
letter is to share with you the importance of your child's daily
attendance at school. Consistent school attendance positively impacts
our ability to prepare your students for the academic demands of the
future and assists us in dealing with the financial reality created by
the state's attendance policies. Recent changes in the law, only
allows us to count "positive attendance". This means that when a
student is absent, the state does not reimburse the district for that
day. We appealed to parents last year to be aware of both the
educational and financial impact of attendance loss and, we are
pleased that we reduced our losses by $125,045, from the $1,027,092,
in 2004-2005.
However, student
absenteeism in our District still resulted in over $902,047 in lost
revenue last year!
Even a small improvement in our K-12 daily student attendance would
generate thousands of dollars for our District. At the secondary
level, the District loses state funds if a student misses even
one class period.
We encourage you to
bear in mind the implications of this state policy when making a
decision to withdraw your student early from the school day or to keep
your student at home for the day. Of course, we understand that
students must miss school when extremely ill and/or infectious;
however, we request that you carefully consider the impact of an
unnecessary absence, especially for discretionary reasons such as
family excursions, trips, vacations, doctor visits, etc. We ask that
whenever possible, parents schedule appointments at the end of or
outside of the school day.
Should an absence be
necessary, parents are encouraged to support our schools by
contributing $35.00 per day, to cover this lost revenue. This check
should be made out to Manhattan Beach Unified School District,
Attention Stephen McMahon, Deputy Superintendent of Business, 325 S.
Peck Avenue, Manhattan Beach, CA 90266.
Daily attendance
boosts academic achievement for our students and is the major source
of needed school funding. Thank you for doing all you can to insure
maximum school attendance.
Sincerely,
Gwen E. Gross, Ph.D.
Superintendent of Schools |
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