On an unseasonably warm Wednesday, October 30, the North Putnam FFA held their annual Trunk or Treat behind the HS/MS building. This annual event that started several years ago continues to be one of the largest Trunk or Treats in Putnam County and the 90 minute line and hundreds of kids demonstrated that again this year.

The FFA Department would like to thank all of the community members who participated in the event, and who brought so much fun and excitement to the community. This year, we would like to thank the North Putnam JAG program for providing free hot dogs, Chartwells for their fall cinnamon roll apple deserts and all of our guests who brought candy and lined up to make this year bigger and better than ever. We would like to thank DJ Bucky Kramer for keeping the music hopping, and all the faculty and staff who helped decorate and hand out candy.

Check out some of the sights of the Annual Trunk or Treat!

A special thanks to Danville WalMart, Danville Dollar Tree, Danville Dollar General, and Bainbridge Dollar General for their generous donations of candy for the Trunk or Treat!

North Putnam Middle School has recently launched an after-school Robotics/STEM Club, offering students an exciting opportunity to dive into the world of coding and robotics. Meeting weekly, students gather to explore foundational coding skills and tackle hands-on problem-solving challenges through robotics builds. This initiative not only encourages technical skills in a collaborative setting but also fosters creativity and critical thinking in a fun, supportive environment.

Whether learning how to code or building their first robot, participants are enthusiastic about the possibilities that robotics holds. Stay tuned for updates as our young engineers and innovators continue to push the boundaries of what's possible!

'North Putnam' a documentary which chronicles the relationship between a rural Indiana school district and its community won the Indiana Spotlight Documentary Award at the Heartland Film Festival. The creative team were on sight to receive the recognition and award. Congratulations to all who were involved in the film.

Over the past year, in nearly every conversation with educators, parents, or business and community leaders, the topic of chronic absenteeism inevitably comes up, and for good reason…student attendance is directly correlated to academic outcomes. Simply put, when students come to school, educators can provide the learning support, and outcomes improve…so it starts with students being in school every day.

As educators and school leaders, we have absolutely been working together to find solutions. Even more so this school year, when driving around the state, I have passed many local school marquees and have wanted to turn around to get a picture of the messaging to parents and community members about the importance of attendance. A recent example was as simple as: “Thank you, parents, for getting your students to school every day and on time.” I have also seen numerous letters that school leaders have shared with parents on this same topic, as well as heard from a number of you on community efforts to improve student attendance…and it is making a difference!

Across the country, we saw chronic absenteeism rates increase dramatically following the pandemic. This September, we shared the state’s latest chronic absenteeism data, which shows that while Indiana is better than the national average and our chronic absenteeism is moving in the right direction, there is more work to do. At our height after the pandemic, we had 21.1% of students chronically absent (missing at least 10% of school days). Since then, we have improved 3.3 percentage points, with 17.8% of students chronically absent during the 2023-2024 school year. **Quick math on chronic absenteeism: 180 school days x 10% = 18 school days…or nearly one month of school.

Other key takeaways from the data include:

• Statewide, chronic absenteeism improved 1.4 percentage points from 2023 to 2024. Data show that chronic absenteeism rates for student populations who experienced the greatest academic impacts following the pandemic are improving more quickly than the state overall.
• Black students - Improved 2.2 percentage points
• Hispanic students - Improved 2.2 percentage points
• Students receiving free/reduced price meals - Improved 2.2 percentage points
• English learners - Improved 2.0 percentage points
• The number of schools with fewer than 10% of students who are chronically absent improved from 580 schools in 2023 to 686 schools in 2024, yet 74 schools have more than 50% of students who are chronically absent.
• Rates of chronic absenteeism continue to be the highest at the high school level, specifically in grades 11 and 12. Nearly one in three Hoosier students are chronically absent during their senior year.
• This underscores the urgency behind our ongoing work to rethink the high school experience and ensure more parents and students see the value in education.
• Students who are chronically absent are significantly less likely to read by third grade, master key ELA and math skills, or be college-ready.

Again, while we are seeing improvement in Indiana, we must continue to link arms to do everything we can to ensure our students are coming to school. To support this work statewide, rather than just having an old-fashioned spreadsheet, which is what we’ve always had, we now have a transparent attendance dashboard that will make it easier to see and interact with the local and state data. Since this must be a community effort, this allows all stakeholders (educators + parents/families + community partners) to see the same data and encourages collaborative solutions. Schools have had access to this embargoed dashboard since late summer, and we’re excited that the public version of the dashboard is now available as well!

This new tool displays attendance data at the grade-, school- and corporation-level and shows different types of absences (excused or unexcused), as well as chronic absenteeism rates. Additionally, users can view longitudinal data that can be disaggregated by student population.

Having this data at our fingertips will help both schools, as well as community partners to:

• Analyze student attendance data over time
• Identify any trends/patterns in the data or areas where data collection could be improved
• Work with a variety of stakeholders to identify root causes of poor attendance
• Review attendance policies and utilize data to inform short- and long-term policy decisions
• Set goals for improved attendance and/or data collection
• Evaluate the impact of current efforts to improve attendance

If you have not already, I encourage you to take a moment to check out the Attendance Insights data. Again, we are moving in the right direction because of your efforts and collaborative solutions, so thank YOU! Let’s keep it going!