Chairperson Bauhu convened the School Improvement and Performance Management Subcommittee to review chronic absenteeism and district supports for students in grades 1–12. Miss Crocker Rovage told members the district is tracking chronic absenteeism continuously and that the state identifies a student as chronically absent when they miss 10% or more of school days.

"Chronic absenteeism is when a student is missing 10% or more of the school year," Miss Crocker Rovage said, illustrating the standard with the example that in a 180‑day year missing 18 days qualifies.

The presenter said district attendance has inched up while chronic absenteeism has fallen: daily attendance rose from about 91.5% in 2022–23 to 92.6% in 2024–25, and end‑of‑year chronic absenteeism dropped from 28.4% to 21.4% over roughly two years. She also flagged early‑grade progress and noted persistent challenges in older grades.

Committee members pressed staff on causes and responses to the jump in absenteeism that begins in ninth grade. Miss Crocker Rovage cited multiple factors: students navigating city buses rather than assigned yellow school buses; the end of free busing that was instituted mid‑year last school year; economic pressures that lead some older students to work; and weather spikes that can increase absences by "two to 300 students for the day." She also said the district recorded 18 more Q1 dropouts than last year.

To accelerate recovery, the district has expanded targeted interventions. Miss Brown LeGrand described a tiered attendance-intervention plan that includes letters by the third unexcused absence, home visits by the fifth unexcused absence, school-based attendance teams and adherence monitoring. The district is integrating social‑emotional and mental‑health supports and piloting a family‑resource‑center social worker to reach preschool families.

Miss Crocker Rovage described a Department of Education award that created seats for high‑dosage tutoring. "We were selected by the Department of Education to receive nearly $1.5 million worth of funded tutoring seats," she said; the program prioritizes first graders and allows expansion to other elementary students if capacity remains. The district also runs small‑group and vacation‑week catch‑up academies and has piloted virtual one‑on‑one tutoring in two schools.

Staff explained the virtual tutors meet daily for 15 minutes and that schools schedule sessions during a regular intervention block so students are not routinely pulled from art or specials. The vendor used in the pilot can match tutors to student needs and the district plans to analyze fresh assessment data in December to measure impact.

Members discussed summer school, which staff said has been underenrolled in recent years. Contributing factors include limited transportation, shorter half‑day programs, hot school buildings in summer and reduced ESSER funding that previously supported full‑site programming. Staff described the current policy on promotion and retention: students with 15–25 absences are "provisionally retained" and summer school is offered to avoid retention; students with more than 25 absences are considered retained. To avoid retention via summer school, staff said a student must successfully complete the summer program with no more than two absences.

Committee members urged a study of summer programming options, including regionalized full‑day sites with transportation and air conditioning, to increase participation and program cost‑effectiveness. Miss Crocker Rovage said that the director of special programs (Dr. Fox) and the special programs team have the enrollment data and would be best positioned to evaluate changes.

The subcommittee did not take formal policy votes on new requirements at the meeting. Chairperson Bauhu called for adjournment; Mister O'Dea moved and Mister Lay seconded; the motion passed and the meeting adjourned.