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Fortis High outlines plan to boost attendance, 9th-grade on-track and test scores
Summary
Fortis High School staff presented a school improvement plan to the Quillayute Valley School District board focused on raising attendance 5% by 2026–27, increasing 9th-grade on-track rates and improving SBA pass rates through MTSS supports, learning coaches and incentives.
Brenda King, the Fortis High presenter, told the school board the high school’s improvement plan centers on three goals: student attendance, 9th-grade on-track rates and SBA pass rates. "Student attendance, we have, intentions to increase it by 5% by the end of the 2627 school year," she said.
King and high school staff described data tracking and a frontline attendance team (Kayla Jackson, Ashley Coburn, Sue Lumbergh and Ryan McGraw). Presenters said average daily attendance has rebounded from the COVID dip and showed recent data that the school is near 90% average daily attendance for 2024, although they acknowledged discrepancies between district figures and the state report card.
The presentation laid out concrete supports: advisors greeting students each period, quicker attendance-taking within the first 10 minutes of class, a student-incentive breakfast for low-absence students and a team-based response to chronic absenteeism. On incentives, staff said the recent attendance breakfast invited 76 students and required an adult chaperone; presenters credited small rule changes (e.g., stricter unexcused-absence limits) with improving attendance.
School staff also tied attendance work to graduation: the district reported a rise in 9th-grade on-track rates (from 47% to roughly 74% in one cohort) after targeted interventions, weekly grade checks and learning-coach support. "We have weekly grade checks, progress reports, and printouts," a high-school presenter said, describing the interventions used to keep students on track.
Why it matters: attendance is the baseline for learning and funding; the board heard both district-wide attendance averages and the school-level supports intended to reduce chronic absenteeism and keep students progressing toward graduation. Board members pressed staff for clarification on how the state and district numbers differ and for follow-up reporting to reconcile the discrepancy.
