SCOTT CITY SCHOOLS SEEK ATTENDANCE BOOST

SCOTT CITY -- Scott City R-1 School District Superintendent Doug Berry wants to see more students attending school.

At the December meeting of the Scott City school board, Berry said that despite good overall attendance, the school is losing thousands of dollars each year in state aid due to absenteeism.

"Our attendance is very good -- we're at about 95 percent year-round -- I just want to try and make it better," said Berry. "I don't want students or teachers to drop their guard because attendance does matter."

Each year, the Scott City school district receives about $1,600 per student, based on 100 percent attendance. Every time a child misses school, money is subtracted.

In November, an average of 53 students were absent from school each day, costing the school district nearly $10,000 in state aid.

"This money is lost to the school and cannot be recovered," Berry told the board.

Berry added that if an average of 53 students were absent from school every day for the duration of the school year, it would cost the district nearly $87,000 in state aid.

"As revealed in these figures, it becomes very apparent that attendance is the number one factor in the state funding and good attendance is very important to the financial success of the school district," said Berry.

"We receive about $1.4 million annually in state aid," said Berry. "So you can see that $10,000 is not a huge portion of the total, but with a school district our size, it really can add up."

So Berry and the school board are telling teachers to encourage the students to attend as much as possible.

"The classroom is there and the teacher is there, so we hope that unless a student is very ill and at risk of infecting other students, he or she will come to class," said Berry. "If we don't have good attendance, we lose state aid and it can really end up hurting the district."

Another factor cutting into the school budget is the money the district is spending to make up for a drop in commodity food shipments from the federal government.

"Since we closed our school store (snack bar), the number of students eating lunch in the cafeteria is up by 120 per day," said Berry. "But the government is behind on its commodity shipments to our school."

Berry said that typically, the government will supply the school with such surpluses as cheese, hamburger meat, fruit, vegetables and dry milk at little or no cost.

"If we don't get these things from the government, we have to buy them from our regular suppliers at a higher cost," Berry said. "An adequate supply of commodities from the federal government is essential to maintaining a balanced budget in food service."

The superintendent has been in contact with the suppliers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who promised that shipments will pick up in the second half of the school year. Still, Berry is concerned because the school year is almost half over, and it could be difficult to use all of the food the government sends late in the school year.

"A lot of this is based on what is available out there," Berry said. "We'll take what we can get."