The Mitchell School District Report Card for grades K-12 was part of the superintendent’s report at yesterday’s Mitchell School Board meeting. The report card is a breakdown and comparison to years’ past in several areas including demographics, graduation rates, and attendance. One statistic that was discussed was chronic absenteeism, which is both a national and statewide concern. Chronic absenteeism occurs when a student misses ten days or more during the school year. The district’s chronic absenteeism rate last year was 18 percent. Board President Deb Olson says one reason that the number is so high is that last year, students were encouraged to stay home if they were ill. In years’ past, students may have come to school until they started to feel worse, she said.
The chronic absenteeism rate was less than 15 percent at each of the elementary schools in the district. The middle school rate was 22 percent, and the high school rate was 23 percent. However, the student attendance rates at the middle school and high school were 92.5 percent and 93.4 percent respectively.
The district report card was informational only, so no board action was taken.