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By William Croyle • [email protected] • November 21, 2009

 

INDEPENDENCE - When the Simon Kenton girls' basketball team played in the Sweet Sixteen tournament in March, they had to miss three days of school.

 

Though they were representing their school on the biggest stage of their young lives, they were marked absent those days.

The absences were excused, but absences nonetheless.

"A lot of us were asking a lot of questions about it," said senior Nikki Brown, who was on that team. "It didn't seem fair."

Many agree, including a state legislator who is trying to do something about it.

Brad Montell, R-Shelbyville, has prefiled a bill (BR82) for the 2010 General Assembly that would "allow students to be counted present at school when participating in school-sponsored regional or state sports competitions sanctioned by the Kentucky Board of Education or its designated agency if the competition occurs on a regularly scheduled school day."

They would of course, be required to make up any missed work.

Montell first filed the bill prior to the 2008 General Assembly, sparked by an e-mail he'd received from a Shelby County student.

"She said that she had perfect attendance and played on her school's tennis team that had qualified for the regional tournament, but the matches were going to be on a school day," Montell said. "She had the dilemma of 'Do I keep my perfect attendance?' or 'Do I be there for my team?'

"I think it's unfortunate that we have a policy that would put a student in that situation," Montell said.

The bill went nowhere in 2008, but was revived for the upcoming session after Montell received an e-mail this year from Jimmy Wilson.

Wilson is the assistant director of pupil personnel for Jefferson County Public Schools. His son was on a tennis team last spring that made it to the regional tournament, with the match scheduled during school hours.

To that point, his son had 10 consecutive years of perfect attendance.

"He had to choose between perfect attendance and the match," Wilson said. With the coach's blessing, his son chose to go to school.

"Why is a kid getting penalized when it's a state-sanctioned event?" Wilson said.

Students statewide have had to miss school for other sports, too, such as a state championship football game or golf regional tournaments.

"When we set up these events, we try very hard to do it so that the student athletes don't miss any school," said Elden May, spokesman for the Kentucky High School Athletic Association.

But he said it's not always possible.

"It often comes down to the renting of facilities," May said. "Often times we're not the only tenant and they actually have to try and fit us in around other events."

Tim Hanner, superintendent of the Kenton County School District, said he fully supports Montell's effort. In fact, one of the goals of the district is for students to be active beyond the classroom.

"For me, it's a no-brainer," Hanner said. "If this was about regular season games, I'd have problems with it, but we're talking about state tournaments. To me, they are educational. They are life-shaping, life-molding events.

"We make it too difficult sometimes with adult rules that are not student-centered," Hanner said.

Wilson believes the bill will become law this time around.

"I think it will be successful because it's a common-sense bill," Wilson said.

Though the bill is focused on absences related to sports competitions, Montell said he would consider broadening it to include absences for non-sporting, school-related events, such as academic competitions.

 

 

So what do you think?

I wrote to Senator Montell to ask him some questions about his bill!

 

1) Would the managers, stats kids get to miss school and not get counted absent?

 

2) What about the Governors Cup students who miss school to attend their Tourney?

 

3) What about the All "A" tourney and those kids when they miss school.

 

The reply I received surprised me. I honestly thought a Senator who was putting a bill before the House would have done a bit more research on the subject.

 

The bill only applies to student athletes that are competing in their regional or state tournament event. I'm not very familiar with the governors cup, but perhaps academic events could be looked at at a later time if we can get this passed. I understand your concern that we could be opening up a can of worms so we must be very careful that we keep the focus narrow. But here is the bottom line: if these students are competing for their school in a state sanctioned regional or state completion, and missing class anyway, everyone benefits if they are counted present.

 

And what about the All "A" Tourney Senator? They would not qualify!

 

So the manager and stats kids who attend every game working for the student athletics/school are out of luck, the All "A" kids sorry, and you students who miss school to compete in the Academic Governors Cup: perhaps academic events could be looked at at a later time if we can get this passed.

 

Now you wonder why Education and Academics take a back seat to sports in the Great Commonwealth of Kentucky.

My mock trial tourney students were marked absent. I will not support this bill unless it is uniform for all students, not just student athletes.

I have been let to believe if you exhibit at the State Fair you can't get marked absent and I think it goes even to the point if you attend the State Fair, you can't marked absent. Not sure if either is true but it is what I have been told.

WOW...I find it hard to believe that schools are marking kids absent for state sponsored events. I'm a chemistry/physics teacher and I take a group of physics students to six flags or kings island on a field trip every year. The amusement parks holds an annual physics day where the students learn the physics of roller coasters. Those students are always marked present even though we spend the day riding roller coasters.

 

I've also been a basketball coach for 5 years, but this is my first year at an all "A" school. Guess I need to check and see if those days will be excused if we make it to the state "A" tournament.

:eek:

 

I cannot believe schools actually mark these kids absent. I've never heard of such a thing. Any absence related to a school-sponsored activity should be considered a field trip. I really don't understand the logic behind issuing an absence. This shows a complete lack of common sense on the part of any administrator that allows absences due to legitimate school business to be counted towards a student's permanent record.

 

Other than Kenton County, what schools do this?

What are the problems with excused absences? Are perfect attendance records that valuable? Not trying to be Socratic here, just curious.

What are the problems with excused absences? Are perfect attendance records that valuable? Not trying to be Socratic here, just curious.

 

Agreed. We need to have our state legislature make rules that have zero significance? My son didn't miss school from 6th grade through high school. If his team had qualified for the state championship and had to miss school he would have been thrilled.

 

I can see if you are the valedictorian and there is a conflict that maybe you would consider missing the game but to skip a game simply to say you had perfect attendance tells me that you haven't learned anything about the value of sports.

What are the problems with excused absences? Are perfect attendance records that valuable? Not trying to be Socratic here, just curious.

 

Yeah. Where I went to school, kids with K-12 perfect attendance records usually were rewarded with a couple hundred bucks on senior night. Money was also awarded for a 9-12 perfect attendance record.

 

Also, many schools run periodic perfect attendance contests as well. The rewards are usually nominal for those contests, but I don't think any student with otherwise perfect attendance should be excluded for attending a school sponsored activity during school hours.

 

Plus, I know for me, it was just a matter of personal pride. Not many people can say they had perfect attendance throughout all of high school.

Yeah. Where I went to school, kids with K-12 perfect attendance records usually were rewarded with a couple hundred bucks on senior night. Money was also awarded for a 9-12 perfect attendance record.

 

Also, many schools run periodic perfect attendance contests as well. The rewards are usually nominal for those contests, but I don't think any student with otherwise perfect attendance should be excluded for attending a school sponsored activity during school hours.

 

Plus, I know for me, it was just a matter of personal pride. Not many people can say they had perfect attendance throughout all of high school.

 

Cash? Wow. I never knew schools did that.

 

As to the debate of whether they should be counted absent I'd say they should not.

Agreed. We need to have our state legislature make rules that have zero significance? My son didn't miss school from 6th grade through high school. If his team had qualified for the state championship and had to miss school he would have been thrilled.

 

I can see if you are the valedictorian and there is a conflict that maybe you would consider missing the game but to skip a game simply to say you had perfect attendance tells me that you haven't learned anything about the value of sports.

 

 

I don't think many people would skip a game to say they had perfect attendance. It would be far cooler to say they took part in a state championship as a kid.

 

From what I can see, the problem is that schools are counting these trips as absences against their permanent record, whereas they should probably be treated as field trips. Aren't extracurricular activities supposed to part of the overall education of a student? If so, any school sponsored extracurricular activity should be treated as a field trip.

Cash? Wow. I never knew schools did that.

 

As to the debate of whether they should be counted absent I'd say they should not.

 

Yeah. I believe our Alumni Association provided the cash.

Athletes at my school that attend regional or state competitions are NOT counted absent. The same is true for academic team Governor's Cup and other academic related competitions. Students can also apply for an "academic enhancement" trip for non-school related trips that are academic in nature, such as college visits.

 

Why would absences matter? In the grand scheme of things, very little. We do have an attendance requirement for some events, such as prom. You have to have a minimum 95% attendance for that year. There is a method for applying for a waiver due to extenuating circumstances, such as the student that we have that suffers from Cystic Fibrosis and missed something like 12 days of school last year.

A true story. Look up the word "irony" in the dictionary, and this story may be there.

 

The final school day of my 8th grade year was on a Monday. Mostly school awards recognition for students. Precious little actual learning took place that day.

 

The day before, I had attended a church picnic, and consumed a total of six chicken salad sandwiches that had been out in the sun all day. Not unexpectedly, I fell violently ill that night, and stayed that way for about three days thereafter.

 

My best friend had to pick up my perfect attendance award at the awards ceremony on Monday.

Agreed. We need to have our state legislature make rules that have zero significance? My son didn't miss school from 6th grade through high school. If his team had qualified for the state championship and had to miss school he would have been thrilled.

 

 

I agree, this seems like pointless legislation. From what I can see, the only benefit is perfect attendance? Whoopty doo.

 

I can't believe that a school would really reward a student for perfect attendance. Shouldn't that be expected?

 

As for your son...something tells me he missed a day or two during March of his junior year.