SAUGUS — A new attendance policy implemented at the Middle High School has helped increase the number of students attending class.
The policy has been piloted since the school year started, according to Principal Dr. Carla Scuzzarella.
“Our overall attendance in 2024-25 (at the) Middle High School for the month of September was 93%. And as of today, it’s 94.1%,” she said.
Sixth-grade attendance in the 2024-25 school year was 93.1%, seventh-grade attendance was 92.8%, and eighth-grade attendance was 91.1%. They have all risen to 95% or above.
“On the high school side of the building for ’24-25, the attendance for September was ninth grade 89.8%, 10th grade 89.1%, 11th grade 85%, and 12th grade was 86.6%,” Scuzzarella said.
She continued that as of Sept. 30, ninth grade has reached 92.8%, 10th grade was 92%, 11th grade was 92.4%, and 12th grade was 91.9%.
“There’s a definite improvement with the consequences for being unexcused (absences), or what I’m calling nondocumented (absences),” she said. “…Excused and unexcused both count on the high school side of the building toward credit reduction.”
Scuzzarella said she’s been “very religious” with sending letters every day or every other day to students who have three or more unexcused or excused absences.
“Parents have been getting an email and a letter in the mail saying that your student has this many days. I’ve tried to do excessive tardies because, as you see, three tardies equals an unexcused absence,” she said.
Scuzzarella said she’s confident that the pilot has made things a lot better, and school attendance has become more serious.
“We have a lot of documentation for absences, and there is an appeal process. So, students that may be in danger in having credit reduction will be able to appeal, and probably a good chunk of those cases, whoever is listening to the appeal will have an opportunity to give the students an alternative,” she said.
She noted that behavior is also connected to this, stating that in the 2024-25 school year, in September, there were 521 incidents that were written up in the student management system.
“As of Sept. 30, ’25-26, we had 215 (incidents). So, of those numbers for the ’24-25 (school year), 428 incidents were the high school, 93 incidents were the middle school, and right now we’re at 172 incidents at the end of September for the high school and 43 for the middle school,” she said.
Scuzzarella said class cuts were the highest at the high school, saying students were just not where they were supposed to be. In September of 2024, there were 243 cuts, and this September, there were only 52.
“I will also say that class cuts overall for the entire year were 49.2% of the incidents reported, and we’re already way below that,” she said. “…Putting a little bit of teeth into the attendance policy is definitely making people think twice about kids just randomly not showing up for school or being late.”
The School Committee voted unanimously to accept the amended attendance policy and agreed that a second reading was not needed.
