The Marshwood school district is working to improve post-pandemic absentee rates in two specific ways: A friendly hawk mascot is building rapport with younger students, while a state-provided advisor is helping teachers tackle absenteeism in grades 6-12.
So far the Building Assets, Reducing Risk program in the Marshwood Middle School has contributed to a sharp drop in absentee rates and failing grades. And Howdy the Hawk has become a familiar presence in the elementary schools, delivering regular “you are important to us” messages, according to Superintendent John Caverly.
District administrators and teachers adopted both programs this fall to reduce troubling rates of absenteeism not unlike those experienced by many of the nation’s schools during the first years of the pandemic. Regular attendance improves student success, said Caverly.
In the first quarter of the 2022-23 school year, 35 Middle School students were considered chronically absent, and 18 were failing one or more courses. In the first quarter this fall, the numbers shrank to nine students chronically absent and nine failing one or more courses.
The sharply improved outcomes were reported at last week’s school board meeting by Middle School Principal Christine Goulet and literacy interventionist Katie Gilpatrick.
They credited the Building Assets, Reducing Risk program, or BARR, for assistance in keeping more students in school. A national program based in Minnesota, BARR was developed in 1998 to reduce course failure rates through “intentional relationships” between students and educators, they told the board. It is now used in school districts throughout Maine.
Forty educators from the Marshwood Middle and High schools received training for the program over the summer, and it was put in place this fall at the Middle School. Gilpatrick, the school’s BARR coordinator, said the high school is now beginning the process of implementing the program.
The program is fully funded by the Maine Department of Education, which contracts with BARR for coaching and assessments.
At the meeting, Goulet and Gilpatrick went over the program’s “Eight Interconnected Strategies” that include focusing on the whole student by considering potential issues outside of school; engaging with families; providing professional development for teachers, counselors and administrators; and scheduling regular meetings to discuss every student.
In feedback to Gilpatrick in October, the district’s coach from the BARR Center, Tony Bland, stated the program has been successful in the Middle School “because the coordinator, staff, and administration have planned for success (and) are prepared; accept various roles, and are ready to allow their colleagues to help them grow and support their students.”
While the early metrics are promising, and the results say “a lot about what we’re doing at the Middle School and [about] the shifts in culture,” said Gilpatrick, there is still “room for growth.”
Howdy the Hawk was introduced to the district’s elementary students in September, and each classroom has a small stuffed animal representing the mascot. They attend school morning meetings and pen letters home, reminding students they are an important element of the Marshwood “nest,” and that they – and their attendance – matters.
Describing the Howdy program to the school board in August, Caverly said the district wants to move away from a “punitive” approach to truancy and chronic absenteeism, and focus instead on welcoming students back following absences, letting them know via letters from Howdy that their absence is noticed and “the school is not the same without them.”
In an October letter to parents and families, Caverly said it is “important that we manage student attendance consistently from building to building to ensure that students and families understand the importance of being in school.”
