The Springfield public schools initiative is being held in conjunction with the United Way of Pioneer Valley.
SPRINGFIELD - The Springfield public schools, in conjunction with the United Way of Pioneer Valley, held a community rally to support its Stay in School initiative Monday afternoon at Putnam Vocational Academy on State Street.
“Attendance is important,” said School Superintendent Daniel Warwick. “We have improved our graduation rate. But we need to do more.”
Warwick said the improvement in the Springfield public schools graduation rate last year was three times the state average, rising from 52.1 percent to 56.6 percent.
The goal of the Stay in School initiative is to increase the graduation rate to 77.4 percent by the year 2015, Warwick said.
Stay in School is a community initiative of the Springfield public schools designed to increase student attendance in Springfield schools, as research shows that daily attendance leads to high school graduation and offers a pathway to life success.
High school graduates are more likely to avoid negative behaviors, have higher incomes and live longer, healthier lives.
Sue Fothergill of Attendance Works, who is a national expert on improving student attendance in urban school districts, said that students who attend school regularly are more likely to read on grade level and graduate from high school.
“Showing up matters,” she said.
She said that after research school officials in another public school district found that some parents were not sending their young children to school because they were not confident the school staff was trained to manage child asthma problems.
“The staff was trained to have inhalers available and to manage asthma, and attendance improved,” Fothergill said.
Talbert Swan, president of the NAACP in Springfield, said that in 1980, while a student at the old Classical High School in Springfield, he missed 60 days of school when he was suffering from depression after his grandmother died.
He said the school district did not contact his family until they held him back the next school year.
“That would not happen today,” Swan said. He said that today the school district contacts families when a child is absent.
Swan said that more of those who are incarcerated and live beneath the poverty line have a lack of education.
“Showing up every day matters,” Swan said.
Mark Checkwicz, a Springfield resident and a parent, said he has a daughter at Central High School in Springfield who is taking three advanced placement courses and is now looking at colleges that only students who stay in school can go to.
“I have been married for 22 years, and I am a father who stayed with my children’s mother,” Checkwicz said. Fathers who stay with their children’s mother matter, he added.
As part of the Stay in School initiative, the schools in the city will compete for a silver trophy for the school with the most attendance for the year.