Mr. Darrell Banks, Webster Parish Schools’ Attendance Officer, led the charge to recognize teachers who stood out for outstanding attendance on Friday, December 20th.
Lacey Berry, Clint Brittian, and Vickie Ramie were each awarded gift cards for having the highest percentage of students present over the contest time. Hannah Chanler received recognition for her efforts to reach out to families to help ensure students are in school.
Gift cards were provided by State Senator Adam Bass, Representative Dr. Wayne McMahen, Mr. Andre Washington (Webster Parish schools Supervisor of Child Welfare and Attendance), Mr. Banks and Mr. Lee.
Central Elementary has frequently led the south end of Webster Parish with the highest attendance percentage. Central is not alone, Doyline and Lakeside have high attendance percentages and in the south end of the parish, the rivalry to see who can have the best attendance rate runs deep.
Mr. Banks stated, “We all understand that illnesses and life events happen. Those things are unavoidable. Having the students on campus is critical to having student success. Without them here, then they cannot learn all they need to learn to be productive citizens. Teachers have such a tough job, finding incentives through the community is one small way I can support them to show we are all in this together.”
Principal, Daniel Lee, recollected, “In carline, I had a parent stop me. The parent made a comment about his child being upset he was sick and couldn’t make it to school. The dad laughed because it is not often you hear of a child being upset about missing school. The dad said that the child was afraid to miss it because she loved the fun things the teachers do. At the end of the day, we are blessed to have teachers who love their jobs and make school fun for the students.”
Nationwide school attendance numbers have been a concern over the past few years. Webster Parish has innovatively taken steps to help increase student attendance in schools. Some of these have been to prioritize the importance of attendance officers within the schools. Mr. Banks and Mrs. Erin Watts help track attendance numbers and create incentives districtwide. One of the incentives was to push for teachers to reach out to absent students and families.
