News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Pickett County High School has a new exam exemption policy that rewards students for good attendance.
The new policy allows students who fall below a certain number of absences to be exempt from midterms and finals, though they still have to take state-mandated exams. Principal Mitch Buckman said the policy was put in place to cut down on the absenteeism that had sprung up after COVID.
“When we started this last year it actually amazed me the number of students that really went out of their way to be at school in order to keep from having to take a midterm or a final,” Buckman said.
Buckman said that, so far, that policy has already cut truancy in half from previous years, a result which exceeded his expectations. He said he hopes to see the trend continue for the coming year because learning can only happen when a student shows up.
Buckman said the policy has four categories based on grades and days missed to allow extra lenience for the students who put in a great deal of effort. He said students with 98 or above can have five absences per semester, 90 to 97 can have three, 85 to 89 can have two, and anyone below 84 may only have one if they wish to be exempt.
“We added that category to say hey, if you come down with the flu and you’ve got a 98 or above, we don’t want that illness that you have no control over to keep you out of this,” Buckman said.
Buckman said any absence from school is counted as such, there is no such thing as excused or unexcused. He said the only exception to the rule is a school trip.
Buckman said there are no further policy changes planned for the time being, just that he and the school have a lot of faith in the plan currently in place.
“If it does as well as we think it does we’ll continue on with it,” Buckman said. ” It’s really a no-brainer for us.”
