Wilmot UHS reports sharp drop in chronic absenteeism after targeted outreach

Wilmot UHS School District announced a substantial decline in chronic absenteeism during the board meeting, with the rate dropping from 26.2% to 14.7% in the most recent school year.

School operations leader Mister Bender presented the year‑end attendance and discipline report, saying the district’s “laser focus” on attendance and weekly improvement meetings with counselors and the school social worker produced measurable results. He attributed the decline to case-by-case outreach—phone calls, home visits and face‑to‑face conversations—and to partnerships with county juvenile‑intake services and a community‑impact program that connects students with resource workers.

Administrators emphasized the scale of the change: superintendent Dr. Plourde noted a roughly 2.1 percentage‑point increase in overall attendance translates to about 3.5 additional school days per student on average, which he said amounts to thousands of additional student‑days of learning across the district.

Board members asked about the district’s next targets. Mister Bender said the district aims to reduce chronic absenteeism below 13% and raise overall attendance toward a 93% goal. He described ongoing tactics: weekly monitoring spreadsheets, individualized attendance plans for frequent absentees (about 20 students identified as frequent flyers), coordination with feeder elementary and middle schools to align attendance practices, and incentives such as weekly raffles for perfect attendance.

The presentation also covered discipline trends. Administrators said discipline referrals remained relatively steady, with a small decline in out‑of‑school suspensions in favor of in‑school alternatives. They flagged a modest increase in incidents involving vaping and said the district is pursuing counseling and family‑engagement responses rather than solely punitive measures.

School leaders told the board they expect continued improvement if current practices persist and asked for board support in communicating expectations and aligning resources. The district did not attach new budget requests to the initiative in the meeting; staff said next steps include continuing summer outreach to at‑risk students and aligning fall interventions with feeder schools.

The board did not take formal action on the attendance report but discussed support options and next‑year goals.