Douglas County SD 4 Phoenix program reports modest attendance gains; two seniors flagged as at-risk for graduation

At a brief Douglas County SD 4 Board of Education meeting, Phoenix program presenter Corey Bernard said the program’s attendance has improved slightly since March but remains low, with 13.24% — 29 students out of 219 — at 90% or higher attendance.

Bernard said Phoenix staff continue outreach to chronically absent students and emphasized state testing is complicating attendance efforts. “We’re at 13.24% with 29 students out of, 219, including our active and inactive that are at 90% or above,” Bernard said. He added staff are making many calls to try to persuade juniors and others to attend because state testing requires students to be present to be tested.

Bernard told the board most state assessments are nearly complete: “I have majority of eighth grade and eleventh graders have completed their science and ELA as of today. Out of all my eighth and eleventh, I only have 1 student that needs to complete science, and then I have about 5 or 6 that need to complete ELA, and I think I had 15 or 16 that needed to complete their math.”

On graduation readiness, Bernard said most seniors who were on track in March remain so but that two seniors are a concern. “I only had 2 of them that I’m actually really, really concerned about, that have kind of fallen off,” he said, noting staff are discussing summer school and other options.

The presentation did not propose any formal board actions; board members did not move to adopt policies or make votes on these items during the meeting. The board chair thanked Bernard for the report and indicated no board members had additional questions after the update.