Solving chronic absenteeism is ‘a people business’

ASHLAND — Steve McDonnell, the principal at Taft Intermediate School, will do anything he needs to in order to help students get to school.

Sometimes, when students miss, all it takes is a phone call home. 

Other times, McDonnell has to take more action to show students how important it is to show up on a daily basis. 

He makes deals with students who struggle to come to class. If they come for 10 days, McDonnell will buy them lunch and send a photo to their parents.

He said if parents ask him to, he’ll even show up at a student’s house in the morning. That can act as a motivator for students to grasp how much McDonnell cares that they come to school. 

“I’m a pretty stubborn individual,” McDonnell said. “We can’t provide a great education if you’re not in the building.”

There’s a lot going on in students’ worlds, McDonnell said. But he finds hope in how his school district has worked to address issues of attendance. 

At Ashland City Schools, a high chronic absenteeism rate in 2021-2022 was cut nearly in half, dropping from 30.9% to 17.3% for the 2022-2023 school year. 

Secretaries and administrators in the district cite a slew of reasons for the drop. Among them is a new program called AttendanceK12 that allows for better tracking of student attendance to comply with state laws.

But at the end of the day, secretaries and administrators agree that one factor is more important than the others: The people who care about the students. That makes the most difference in getting kids to come to school. 

That extends from teachers in the classroom who raise the alarm to a building’s secretaries when they notice student absences; to administrators and an attendance counselor; all the way up to the relationship between district leadership and the community.

Building a link

Several secretaries and administrators across the district listed the increased presence of Tyanne Brophy, an attendance counselor, as part of Ashland City Schools’ success dropping its chronic absenteeism rate. 

Brophy started with Ashland City Schools three years ago. The past two years, she worked with the district once a week, and worked with others too. This year, she retired, and then returned to work only with Ashland City Schools. 

She’s in the district as an attendance counselor three times a week through Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center. 

Mid-Ohio ESC has three attendance counselors, according to Supt. Kevin Kimmel. Most ESCs in the state do offer attendance counselors, Kimmel said. It remains up to individual districts whether they take advantage of that resource.

The other two attendance counselors at Mid-Ohio ESC split their time between nine schools. One is charged with four districts, and the other with five. 

Kimmel said attendance counselors all learn about attendance rules, the juvenile court system in each county and more. 

“All those things that they learn, they pick up from these districts,” Kimmel said.

Kimmel said each district uses attendance counselors differently.

Some knock on students’ doors and perform home visits when they miss large amounts of school. Others take a more proactive approach by talking to families about attendance. Still others focus on the paperwork side of things, pursuing court action in the most extreme cases. 

Brophy spends her time reviewing AttendanceK12, the district’s attendance tracking program. It’s school secretaries who send courtesy letters to parents. 

Brophy steps in as students accrue more absences and have intervention meetings with families, and when the district has to consider filing against a student or family in juvenile court.

She also performs home visits and communicates with parents consistently via phone and text. 

Many administrators and secretaries said somebody dedicated to attendance has eased pressure on them. It also means there’s more unity in handling attendance between buildings in the district. 

“I think Tyanne (Brophy)’s our link between all the buildings,” said Heather Green, the attendance secretary at Ashland High School. 

Green said once a student hits her radar because they’ve missed a number of hours, she can visit Brophy about it, who can often venture back to the student’s attendance in middle school.

Communication is key

Brophy’s role is important, but makes up only part of the team making headway on attendance struggles in Ashland City Schools. 

Ashley Pacholewski, the assistant principal at Ashland Middle School, said she thinks new leadership has been key in addressing attendance issues. 

“Steve (Paramore’s) … triumph as superintendent now (is) he’s really taking care of people,” Pacholewski said. 

Paramore took over as superintendent in January 2023, after Doug Marrah’s retirement at the end of 2022. Marrah had served as superintendent of Ashland City Schools since 2011.

The district tapped Paramore to permanently hold the top position in March 2023.

Under Paramore, Pacholewski said the progress has been building connections between the district and Ashland. 

Connection matters when it comes to attendance.

An Attendance Task Force convened by the state from May to October 2023 listed communicating “proactively and regularly” about what’s happening in school districts as one of its recommendations for improving upon attendance.

Paramore has publicly emphasized his willingness to ramp up his use of programs like Remind, a texting app, to share news directly with the district’s families. 

He also has encouraged parents at multiple board meetings to reach out directly to him with questions and concerns. 

Building relationships

Brophy and Pacholewski both emphasized that, at the end of the day, they can only do so much to help students without knowing what’s happening in their worlds. 

McDonnell agreed. Attendance is an individual issue, he said. It requires looking at each case, making exceptions and allowances and connecting parents with resources and information. 

That takes a team effort, including teachers, guidance counselors, secretaries and administrators working together with families.

Pacholewski said teamwork is core value number one at Ashland City Schools.

“I can confidently say that I love being a part of this admin team, because we have a circle of gladiators that will go above and beyond to make sure kids are served regardless of what building they’re in,” Pacholewski said.

“Beyond admin, I just saw a teacher in our building today who was connecting with a kid that was having a hard time … (she) came in on purpose before a school day started, to tell a kid how much she cared about him.” 

Brophy added that secretaries, like Heather Green at Ashland High School, make all the difference in her ability to do her job. 

“With Heather (Green) and any of these secretaries, they know the kids better than I ever will,” Brophy said. 

That’s because when students miss school, Green reaches out to their families. She determines why a student is absent, and gains a better understanding of the factors that might be contributing to continuing absences.

“We have a circle of gladiators that will go above and beyond to make sure kids are served regardless of what building they’re in.”

Ashley Pacholewski, Assistant principal at Ashland Middle School

Green said she regularly answers students’ and parents’ questions about attendance. 

“Mrs. (Rosemarie) McNamara (Ashland High’s executive secretary) and I are the first two people you see when you walk in the building,” Green said. “So it’s always been a thing that I’ve had that relationship side.

“I just try to talk to them and have a conversation with them.”

The relationships Green develops count when it comes to getting children through the doors, said Brophy. It develops trust and offers more context for Brophy when she deals with families, too. 

A way to go

McDonnell said he thinks the district’s data confirms it’s on the right track in combating chronic absenteeism.

Between Brophy, the district’s school resource officer, administration, guidance counselors and teachers, McDonnell thinks the support in place for students is plentiful.

In McDonnell’s eyes, the district has a common goal: Helping kids and families. 

Getting students to school is an important part of doing that, Pacholewski said. In her eyes, school helps students develop social skills, relationships and more.

“I want every kid to school every day, on time, all day,” Pacholewski said. “I want them here. Our staff wants them here. I’m hoping parents want them here, too.”

But even with the drop in its rates, Ashland City Schools’ work on chronic absenteeism isn’t finished. 

“We’re not 100% successful,” McDonnell said. “We’re still getting things done.”

This is the final part of a three-part Solutions Journalism series, “Learning Lost,” focused on a nearly 14-point drop in Ashland City Schools’ chronic absenteeism rate between the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years. Part one ran on March 18. Part two ran on March 19.

This independent, local reporting provided by our Report for America Corps members is brought to you in part by the generous support of the Ashland County Community Foundation.