ALLENTOWN, Pa. — Hundreds of Allentown elementary school students enjoyed a trip to Muhlenberg College for having good or improved attendance.
Toomey Anderson, Allentown School District’s activities and athletics coordinator, said 600 students from 10 elementary schools racked up the attendance rates in the first part of the school year to attend Tuesday’s women's basketball game. The Muhlenberg women's basketball team took on the Franklin & Marshall Diplomats from Lancaster’s Franklin & Marshall College.
Anderson said each school decided on the criteria students had to meet to win the reward. He said this is the second year the district has offered a basketball game at Muhlenberg as a prize for coming to school regularly.
“You just go out there and hear their reactions out there, hear their excitement of pure joy,” he said. “We just want to keep them on their toes and make sure that they know that we do care about them coming and wanting them to continue to come.”
“We're just really excited for the opportunity to celebrate our students in a big way for doing something that is really difficult to do and it's really difficult for parents to do as well.”Dodd Elementary School Principal Katrina Griffin
Dodd Elementary School Principal Katrina Griffin said they went to every class and before winter break and told students if they had perfect attendance, they would get a big reward.
“Out of 715 students, we have 65 who had perfect attendance for the first quarter and that included not being late to school,” she said. “We're just really excited for the opportunity to celebrate our students in a big way for doing something that is really difficult to do and it's really difficult for parents to do as well.”
Dodd’s overall attendance rate had dipped to just below 90% after the pandemic. Griffin said interventions they’ve implemented have improved the school’s attendance rate to about 93%, but her goal is to raise it to 95% and reduce chronic absenteeism. Chronic absenteeism is when a child misses 10% of all school days in an academic year
“It's something that we have to continue to work on, partner with our parents and our families and make sure that they have the supports that they need and get their students to school when they're healthy,” Griffin said. “And just making sure that we're rewarding that and we're supporting families at the same time.”
Despite the home-field advantage, the Diplomats won the game against the Mules 60-to-56. Anderson said kids who maintain good attendance can earn another incentive that’s planned for later in the school year.
