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SOUTHWEST SCUTTLE - AUGUST 2024

OPEN HOUSE - MONDAY, AUGUST 19TH

On Monday, August 19th, Southwest Middle School will be having our open house from 11am to 7pm. Letters to families were sent out a couple of weeks ago with the details about what to expect and when to attend.

If you did not receive your letter and instructions, please join us any time during the open house.

During the open house students and parents will have the opportunity to:

* Get student pictures taken (order forms will be available)

* Purchase chromebook insurance (the cost is $20.00 per student for the school year)

* 6th grade will receive their chromebooks

* Purchase our fundraiser blankets and pencils

* Sign permission forms

* Pickup ParentVue activation codes

* Register for sports

* Learn About the “Tigers Unite” app and how to add this to your phone/electronic device

* Drop off immunization and/or sports physical forms

* Meet the teachers

*And tour the school

We are looking forward to seeing you on Monday. Have a great weekend!

A. L. & SWMS BLANKET & PENCIL FUNDRAISER

Albert Lea & Southwest blankets will be for sale at our open house.

Blankets are $20.00 each and can be purchased in front of the media center.

Pencils are $.25 each

WHY ATTENDANCE IS IMPORTANT

School districts across the country often use chronic absenteeism when looking at student data. To be considered chronically absent a student must miss at least 10% of the school year, whether they are excused or unexcused. To be considered chronically absent at Albert Lea, students must miss at least 17 days of school.

The graphic to the right is attendance data of Southwest students from 2017 who were considered to be chronically absent through last year. Two school years, 2019-2020 & 2020-2021, were not included due to the Covid Pandemic. The number of chronically absent students have almost doubled.

The graphic below shows what happens if a student, on average, misses 2 days of school a month and also if they were to miss, on average, 4 days of school a month.

As you can see, attendance matters. The Southwest staff wants all of our students to do well and succeed in life and being at school on a regular basis is a key part of that. We know the attendance issue needs to be addressed and we also know that we can’t do this alone. Southwest and families need to work together to make sure all of our students are attending school on a regular basis.

Here are a couple of key updates to our attendance policy:

On top of this we will give all of our families updated information throughout the year on our attendance data.

ATTENDANCE REMINDER

STUDENT ATTENDANCE:

If your student will not be in school you MUST call the attendance line @ 507.379.5312.

PLEASE DO NOT CONTACT TEACHERS INSTEAD OF THE ATTENDANCE OFFICE.

Our attendance line is available 24 hours a day and IS checked throughout the school day.

If you need to take your student out of school early during the day, please call the attendance secretary directly at 507.379.5243 OR jane.beighley@alschools.org.