Washington High School recently completed its first post-COVID school year, but one of the lingering effects of the pandemic left a long term unforeseen impact. Teresa Beenblossom, the Principal of Washington High School, notes that attendance was an issue last year and has set a goal for next year to raise attendance up to 95%. 

One of the concerns raised by some of her colleagues at the most recent School Board meeting is that because of the virtual learning measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic students became accustomed to not coming to class. When asked about this Beenblossom did acknowledge that rebuilding that repetition of going to class has been a challenge. 

“I think that it has been a struggle of getting the repetition up and getting kids back into school. We were able to do things online and it became a habit for those students, so getting kids back in the habit of coming to school and engaging in the classroom is something that we are working on.”

Another measure taken to try and curtail falling attendance was the implementation of a new Truancy policy and you can read more about that policy on kciiradio.com.