Changes were made to the LECC, preschool, elementary and high school handbooks ahead of the coming school year.
The only significant change to LECC was changes on the language relating to regulation for pink eye. Preschool and elementary only had minor grammatical changes or other items.
At the high school level, the absenteeism policy was changed.
Secondary principal Jack Leighty explained that chronic absenteeism is 17 days total of missing school. “With that, it doesn’t take a student a lot to get to 10 missed days of school depending on the illness,” Leighty said.
Leighty said the school will start reaching out to parents and students when students hit seven days of absenteeism.
Superintendent Autumn Pino said the district will be cracking down on absenteeism as schools can lose funding if attendance rates get too low. Lisbon’s attendance rate was 86 percent last school year. The average attendance rate for Grant Wood Area Education Agency schools was 87 percent.
An additional change at the high school is language pertaining to attendance and being able to participate in activities.
With these changes, Leighty is hopeful parents and students will be able to help the attendance rate increase and counter chronic absenteeism.
“We wanted to change the language to accommodate seniors, who may have an open block at the beginning of a school day,” Leighty said. “The goal is that students who are participating in activities should be attending most of a school day before said activity.”
At the middle school level, students will have a weekly academic eligibility check, instead of relying only on midterms to determine eligibility in the season.
“We think that will help set the tone earlier about the importance of grades and extracurricular activities and help as students advance into high school,” Leighty said. “The emphasis is on the importance of school over activities.”