Green Bay parent says new attendance system generates false absences, pulls students from class

At the board—s open forum on Dec. 8, Green Bay resident Jeff DeGraves told trustees he receives daily calls from district attendance reporting stating his son missed one or more class periods, but he says the notifications are incorrect and the district—s process is creating lost instructional time.

DeGraves said the district purchased an attendance system he identified as the "Joule" system (he also referenced a "Jewel settlement") that uses a swipe process. He said students are pulled from class to get a paper pass when the system does not register swipes, which he estimates costs 10–15 minutes of learning per affected class and sometimes affects multiple classes in a day. He told the board that his efforts to get staff follow-up, including a promised contact from a director of gifted and talented, have not yielded the responses he was promised.

DeGraves also said teachers and students report the swipes often do not register. He told the board he has corrected about 20 attendance or tardy entries in his son's Infinite Campus records and said teachers have expressed frustration with the process.

Board members thanked him for speaking; no formal action addressing the specific claim was recorded during the meeting.