SAU#6

Following a discussion about the benefits for students, families, and the schools, the Claremont School Board voted in favor of reinstating the community attendance officer (truancy officer) position to help us reduce absences and increase engagement in our schools. This is a step forward in connecting better with all families and students and is part of a larger approach to community outreach. We want our district’s attendance intervention to begin at the ground level and work up and work with students and families.

Scott Maple, the community attendance officer before the position was originally eliminated, has enthusiastically agreed to take up the reins again.

“Truancy is big throughout the country and there are many reasons why. In my twenty-year career as a law enforcement officer, I saw so many cases where if a person had understood the importance of being in school, they would not have ended up in our criminal justice system,” said Mr. Maple. “In five months, I conducted four hundred home visits to 98 students and their families. Ninety-four of them returned to school with the help of myself and administration and other educators.”

Every day that a student is not in attendance, the absence not only affects the student’s education, it also reduces the adequacy aid our schools receive. It results in teachers needing to re-teach concepts, which takes time away from educating students.

This “boots-on-the ground” role is somewhat different from a truancy officer in the past.  While Claremont’s community attendance officer does conduct home visits, meeting with these students and their parents and guardians is rarely about disciplinary measures or forcing them to return to school. These home visits are good ways to connect with the student so that we can get to the root cause of the absences and/or lateness. Mr. Maple will often be the first connection we make so we can all work together with families to provide the right supports in the right way. Our community attendance officer will collaborate with administrators, social workers, teachers, and counselors on attendance improvement plans and will serve as a liaison between families and other organizations.

In addition to the in-person part of the job, Mr. Maple tracks attendance and tardiness across the district, maintains records of all attendance related interventions and their results. This reporting will help us in a variety of ways. We will be relying on him to be up-to-date on laws and best practices.

This new version of Mr. Maple’s role will include driving the SAU’s fifteen passenger van. This will give him the ability to bring students to and from school.

Filling Other Roles

There are a number of other positions that have opened up over the past few months. We are strategically addressing these needs, prioritizing them from highest need to lowest. While some of the vacancies present challenges and we need to fill them quickly, others have unintentionally given us an opportunity to reevaluate our needs how we can best serve the community.

For instance, the departure of the assistant superintendent and the grants manager initially left a significant gap. Looking more closely though, we realized there was an overlap in the jobs they did and some of their functions were redundant. So, we made the decision to post for a grants manager to start, with the plan to expand their role down the road to include some of the critical job elements that the assistant superintendent did.

Mr. Angell is developing a personnel chart so we can see what everyone does so we can look at the best ways to utilize their skills and talents. We’re looking at creative solutions that can make our SAU function better than it did before.