SALAMANCA — Student attendance in the Salamanca City Central School District remains below the pre-COVID rates four years after schools went remote during the pandemic, but the data shows promising increases with each passing year
Attendance officer Steve Brundage presented several years of attendance rates to the Board of Education at its December meeting, notably that overall attendance during the 2023–24 academic year was 88%, just five percent behind the 2018–19 attendance rate of 93%.
Brundage said a lot of perspectives changed with the pandemic in regards to working or taking classes remotely from home rather than having to go in person.
“A lot of the kids who attended in the time period since then have said that their parents … their support systems and their thinking has all changed a bit,” he said. “There is a divide there that changed a lot of things.”
Brundage said while Salamanca has its own culture and things other districts don’t deal with — such as being a small city school in a mostly rural area — the local attendance rates for the district are roughly the same as the statewide average. In the 2018–19 year, the state average was 94% and in 2023–24 it was 89%.
With three months of data into the 2024–25 year, Brundage said the district average is 90%.
“We are up a little bit from last year,” he said. “We had some illnesses, I know we had some Longhouse celebrations. Those are excused but they’re still absences.”
When compiling data in all three buildings, it was found that there was a drop in attendance on half-days, Brundage explained. He said they are looking at as many factors as they can to see why attendance may drop, adding that this year’s calendar only has two half-days.
“We’re trying to figure out what brings kids here but also what keeps the kids from wanting to be here, and that was something that did come up,” he said.
Brundage said they are working on celebrations for those who don’t miss school. They recently held an ice cream day for students with one or zero absences, he said, with the high school alone having 178 students who were eligible for the event.
“You should have seen the kids,” he said. “I went over to a little girl and asked how’s your ice cream? She said, ‘I’m having an ice cream sundae at 9:30 in the morning. How cool is my school?’”
Brundage said a lot of staff helped with the events, and he received a lot of personal, heartfelt thank yous from the students.
Meanwhile, Brundage said the percentage of chronically absent students — meaning they miss 10% of school days or more — was 21.2% at Prospect Elementary, 24.6% at Seneca Intermediate and 36.4% at the high school, which he noted was in line with the national data. He said the largest groups of students are those in chronic or those with only a couple of absences with comparatively few in the three-to-nine absences range.
However, the impact of poverty in the area is being focused on as it is a growing challenge. Brundage said the poverty level for Salamanca students has gone from 62% in the 2013–14 school year to 75% in the current school year.
“We need to start looking at this as a possible barrier. It’s a growing challenge. It’s not just here, but it is here,” he said. “How else can we support students who need this assistance?”
Some avenues the district is looking into include asking families to reach out to liaisons and attendance officers for assistance, Brundage said. He said communication is improving with texts and morning greetings, and a lot of families are starting to get back to them.
“We’re making sure that people are involved and care, because we were finding a lot of apathy,” he said. “These kids are doing great things, and you can acknowledge that in the morning. … I’ve learned an awful lot about kids in five to 10 seconds in the morning. Sometimes it makes their day.”
Brundage said he continues to meet with administrators, counselors, social workers and liaisons to provide support. They’re also reviewing current policies and procedures, and he constantly receives feedback and a lot of helpful interactions from the staff and students alike.
“This takes a village to do what we’re doing, and this village is getting stronger,” he added. “I’d much rather have them come to me and talk than not.”
Upcoming plans include working with Every Person Influences Children (EPIC) to focus on attendance, continuing to use Parent Portal and texts option to improve/ensure effective communication, using school program MBA Plugins for accurate, timely notifications of excessive absences and requesting to meet to remove barriers and remedy each case and having a student forum.
“I think this is going to continue to evolve. I think it’s going to keep going,” he said. “I think we’re in a good spot and I think we’re going to be in a better spot next time I’m standing up here.”
Board member Kerry John noted that caring about the students and that they’re getting a good experience at school is something the administration collectively agrees on.
President Theresa Ray said it can be hard to hear the district is below the average, but knows that everyone is trying to do the right things to get the students to school.
“We’re always here. We always want to celebrate and help celebrate good attendance,” she said. “We know that getting them here is half the battle of them learning.”
Brundage thanked Kristin Dudek, Chief of Student Supports and Information; Levi Sponeybarger, Website Operator/Public Relations; as well as every teacher, principal and administrator for their help with the attendance process.
