Attendance is one of the biggest parts of high school life. It is just not all about the grades, it is also about showing up to your classes. The administration is now offering the freshman the chance to rewarded with Subway; the only requirement is to have a 90 percent in attendance for the month of February.

  “Our main goal is to get the freshman on track and getting them to get the credits,” assistant principal Erin Voelker said.

 The transition from middle school to high school is a big change, middle school has lower expectations, while high school has heightened expectations in regards to showing up and doing well in your classes.

  Principal Michael Schaefer wrote a grant for the Subway sandwiches, to help the freshman class improve their attendance. Schaefer wrote the grant because freshman attendance wasn’t doing so well and thought that attendance will improve by doing this.

  “I think many 9th grade students are used to the middle school grading system where they didn’t have to worry about getting a F, because they don’t have to retake the class in order to move on,” attendance liaison Solen Chu said.

  Chu’s job is to connect with students and parents to provide as much support as possible for them attend school, but her main focus are the 9th grade students who are below a ninety percent rate in attendance. In middle school your grades did not really “count” but in high school they do. Some think that it will not affect them in the future, but once it comes down to counting up all the credits you need and if you will graduate on time, missed time your freshman year can be crucial.

  “The leading cause of course failure is absence, not low skills” Solen said. Being gone for one or two days can make you miss important things in your classes. Seniors actually have the worst absence rate, but there is not much of a focus on this group as they are graduating in a couple of months. The seniors simply need to  worry about having all of their credits in time  to graduate.