Lisbon High School, middle school and elementary school set their goals to achieve for the school year.

High school principal Jack Leighty said the baseline goal for the high school is to have students testing in 80 percent efficient in the new FAST testing in literacy and math. He also said the goal was to have attendance be above 90 percent for the district.

When it came to meeting the baseline, most grades are already close to the 80th percentile in math, with a few outlying classes that Leighty thinks could show improvement this year. With FAST testing, students will take part in one more test per year.

Attendance-wise, Lisbon is currently sitting at 86 percent while Grant Wood AEA schools are on average at 87 percent. Chronic absenteeism is marked as missing 10 percent or more of classes in a given quarter or semester.

“When you look at the data, it’s roughly a handful that are really swinging the pendulum for us,” Leighty said. “It’s something we’re always battling, but the focus is to bring the rate back up to closer to 90 percent attendance for everyone.”

Superintendent Autumn Pino said chronic absenteeism is something being focused on at the state level. Chronic absenteeism considers excused and unexcused absences combined in a given semester.

“You have a family vacation and an illness and you’re suddenly on the radar for missing more than 10 percent of school days in a given period of time,” Pino said.

Pino said districts across the state were looking for guidance on when county attorneys should get involved in cases.

The grey area for districts is what constitutes a medical exemption for students. There are times, for instance, when an illness like an ear infection can turn into an illness someone is hospitalized for, which would be an exemption from being absent.

As thresholds rise above 10 percent, 15 percent and 20 percent, there are intervention steps that adminis- trators at the elementary, middle and high schools will conduct to make sure parents are aware of the issue and may involve the district contacting families weekly or more often.

At the elementary level, the goals are:

• Have 95 percent of proficient students maintain pro- ficiency on FAST testing and have 60 percent of students who are not proficient make growth.
• Have 80 percent of students at grade level in math according to FAST testing.
• Have 90 percent of students meeting grade-level expectations according to FAST
• Have 100 percent of elementary grade level PLCS during planned professional development time.

Math is an area the elementary needs to focus more on this year and will be doing so, as they move to a new math curriculum this year as well.