ABSENTEEISM IN SCHOOLS HIGHER THAN USUAL MONDAY

Observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day was cited as one reason for absenteeism in the Cape Girardeau School District Monday.

Students originally were to have been off, but school officials decided to use the King holiday and upcoming Presidents Day to make up for days missed because of bad weather.

Principals at most of the district's nine school buildings said absenteeism was higher than normal Monday. A majority said the observance of the holiday was a primary reason students missed classes.

"I sent a communication home to the parents when the decision to open the schools was made," said Stan Seiler, who had 22 more students absent from Clippard Elementary School than the daily average of about 15. "I encouraged all the parents to go ahead and send the kids to school," he said.

Constance York was one of the parents who allowed their children to attend community activities rather than school Monday. York and Ajene, 6, attended the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast at the Show Me Center.

"I chose to bring him because for me Dr. Martin Luther King's life is a memorable and important celebration," said York. "I find it quite offensive of the public school to ask the kids to go to school on this day."

Joshua Garmon, 14, also attended the breakfast rather than classes at Central Junior High School. "I made up my mind today that it would be beautiful and nice to go to," he said. "I think anybody and everybody should come out and celebrate this national holiday."

Dr. Barbara Kohlfeld, principal at May Greene Elementary School, was one of the principals reporting higher absenteeism. All of the school's fifth- and sixth-grade teachers and students attended the breakfast after an anonymous benefactor provided tickets to the event.

Kohlfeld said teachers at her school held special activities for students to commemorate the day.

Kohlfeld said, "I regret that the kids were in attendance today, but I think it worked out beautifully."

All schools in the district implement a calling procedure to contact parents when absences are noted. While the holiday was a contributing factor, some parents called on Monday also said their children were at home sick, at doctor's appointments, or attending family engagements.

"What impact the holiday has is real difficult, because when you get into January you run higher absenteeism because of illnesses," said Central Junior High School principal Gerald Richards. Sixty-six students were absent from the junior high school, about 2 percent more than the school's 94 percent average daily attendance rate.

Washington Elementary School principal Pamela Barnes said her school generally averages 10 to 20 absences each day. She said the nearly 60 students who were absent Monday was unexpected.

"It was a school day that was scheduled off, so of course some people will have made plans that would be difficult to reschedule," said Barnes. "A lot of parents plan vacations ahead of time or doctor's appointments. We even had some teachers who had scheduled appointments when they thought they were going to be off, and later they couldn't reschedule them, so they're out today."

Principals said they planned to be lenient in considering absences for the day. Most parents contacted had provided valid reasons why their children were absent, and commemoration of the holiday was generally accepted as an excused absence, they said.

"We're going to excuse those who attend activities," said Louis J. Schulz School principal Rob Huff. "We work hard with attendance, but we also try to work with families. If a parent calls and says it was an activity at home, we're going to accept the parent's word."