SJSD renews focus on attendance, language barriers

Oct. 12—The St. Joseph School District is making active efforts to improve attendance rates and resources for students whose first language isn't English.

But concerns remain over the rate of progress, which was discussed at a Board of Education meeting Monday.

Elementary school attendance has increased to around 85% of students who attend at least 90% of the time, and attendance for the entire district went from 74.7% last year to 80.3% so far this year.

It's a promising sign, but the district wants those numbers around 90%, said Ashly McGinnis, SJSD assistant superintendent of academic services.

"Every one of our schools has an attendance action plan," she said. "They are creating those steps they need to do based off the needs of their kids, and I believe that's working. We've had increases in buildings who are implementing their action steps."

Increasing attendance means cutting down on contributing factors, which means the district's counselors and social workers play a key role, McGinnis said.

"Social workers and counselors are huge assets in our school buildings, not only for providing the resources that our social workers do," she said. "If they have clothing needs or hygiene products or food, they can help provide those resources for our kids and our families. But the counselors also play a crucial role because so many of our kids are struggling with mental health right now."

Language is another major barrier the district is working to improve. The district has more than 1,000 students whose primary language isn't English.

Those numbers are expected to keep increasing, so they need more staff certified in other languages, SJSD Director of Special Programs Dlo DuVall said.

"One of the things that we are doing to encourage teachers getting that certification, TESOL certification, there's a lot of places in the United States where you can receive that," she said. "Missouri Western (State University) does have a good program, and so we have a tuition assistance program that if a teacher is choosing to go into that field, then we can help with their tuition. And so that's one way to encourage more people."

There are hundreds of students who speak languages not even covered by Google Translate, DuVall said.

The district has multiple translators for Spanish but none for Chuukese, which is the second-most common foreign language spoken in the district. It also is one of the languages not translated by Google, so the district is working to hire its own translator.

Alex Simone can be reached at alex.simone@newspressnow.com. Follow him on Twitter at @NPNOWSimone.