Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Attendance topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Paramount Unified presents attendance data; board questions slide discrepancies and subgroup trends
Summary
Deputy Superintendent Lindsey Gitanda and staff reported a decline in chronic absenteeism but board members pressed for clarification about slide numbers; the district said LCAP figures were pulled from the approved plan and promised follow‑up.
The Paramount Unified board received an attendance presentation on Oct. 8 that framed attendance as a key predictor of long‑term academic and social outcomes and described a district action plan to reduce chronic absenteeism.
Deputy Superintendent Lindsey Gitanda summarized research on chronic absence and linked attendance to graduation outcomes. She told the board the district's chronically absent rate showed improvement: staff cited a district chronic‑absenteeism decline and a reported 23.3% chronically absent rate for 2024–25 on a dashboard slide, while also noting the district's goal of reducing chronic absenteeism below 20% (Lindsey Gitanda, Deputy Superintendent).
Director of People Services Lisa Kirk outlined a tiered attendance plan (tiers 1–3) that includes staff training, site‑level action plans, home‑visit materials and quarterly attendance‑task‑force meetings. Kirk said sites were using door hangers, talking points for parent conferences and school incentives to promote attendance.
Board members raised questions about apparent discrepancies between slides and prior reports. Board member Sonia Veil Leon asked why numbers on some slides did not match numbers she remembered from 2023–24; staff responded that the LCAP goals were drawn from the approved LCAP document and that dashboard exports and slide pagination can cause apparent mismatches. The district agreed to provide clarifying updates and pointed to declines in chronic absenteeism across most groups while noting foster youth had increased to 28.3% chronically absent.
Key numbers reported at the meeting: the district said chronic absenteeism declined (slides cited 23.3% for 24–25 and a separate statement of a 14.9% decline on the dashboard), a week‑8 attendance trend around 94.15% (district goal 95%), and that as of a May 2025 comparison the district remained above pre‑COVID attendance levels.
What comes next: District staff said they will provide a follow‑up with the board to reconcile slide figures and will continue quarterly task‑force meetings and site action planning. No formal vote was required for the information item.
Why it matters: Attendance affects state funding, the district's LCAP targets, and student outcomes; board members asked for clearer reporting to communicate progress accurately to the public.
