Costa begins new attendance policy

By Emily Dubinsky

Staff Writer

At the beginning of this school year, Mira Costa implemented a new attendance policy in hopes of a better attendance outcome within the students.

Costa Vice Principal Kristin Wolberg decided that changes to the attendance policy would improve the attendance of students at Costa by making some of the policies more strict. The added policies state; if students have six or more unverified absences for any class within a month, they will be assigned study zone which is Saturday school.

“Our wish is for students to be as successful as possible, and it is hard to be successful academically when missing valuable class time,” Wolberg said.

Many of the same policies still apply to this year. Some of the policies that stayed the same were the need for a late arrival slip to get into class if late, and the need of an off grounds permit before leaving campus. The policy changes made were minimal as Costa made these changes in hopes for students to become more knowledgeable by attending school more.  

“These changes are really minimal and don’t affect me much, seeing as how I followed these rules prior to the official changes. The only difference is that they seem more enforced.” Sophomore Emma Goad said.

One of the attendance policy changes new to this year is the addition of office hours. With office hours, Costa has established policies for it such as; students who are finished after 4th period are required to stay through office hours, and a parent or guardian must be physically present to sign you out on the days of office hours.

“With office hours this year, we simply set policies and expectations that help students maximize the opportunities they’ve been given to obtain help, collaborate with others, and get work done,” Wolberg said.

Along with the addition of office hours, the school has also applied more consequences to the seniors who do not follow the policy. For example, if a senior has more than ten unexcused absences in a semester, they will lose privileges such as grad night, and senior prom. According to Wolberg, this policy change will help with  a better attendance outcome, which will ultimately result with students being able to learn more.

“I don’t think the new consequences for the seniors are necessary,” Senior Olivia Everhard said. “If seniors want to ditch classes and don’t care about their grade than they probably will whether or not it’s against the rules.”