Recently, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released attendance data for school staff. It was intended to complement student attendance data to determine trends and impact.
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A local news station published a story about that data. It stated, “on the lower end, Northampton-Smith Vocational Agricultural has a 76.7% staff attendance rate.” This alarming story impelled a deeper dive into the data by our school administration. After careful review, we found that the data points for the school districts referenced in the story were actually data for administrator attendance rates — not staff. However, the reported 76.7% administrative attendance appeared to be inaccurate so we ran a review of our attendance data.

Due to a database calculation error, the administrator attendance was including alleged absences for days administrators did not work outside their contractual work year. This would be like calculating summer and school vacations as absences for our instructional staff. Most administrators are expected to work 209 days. However, they were coded as a 260 day year. Therefore, these administrators had 51 days of absences before any accruals were used. After correcting this error the administrator attendance rate for the 2024-2025 school year was 93.8%, compared to the 94.5% statewide average attendance rate for administrators.

We also reviewed the instructional staff and all staff attendance rates to ensure we had valid data. For transparency, I want to share this updated data for 2024-2025 with our school community. At SVAHS, the attendance rate was:

95.1% for teachers
93.8% for administrators
92.6% for all staff

I thank everyone who helped in the recalculations. We’re working with DESE to update the data within their system. Attendance, among students and educators, remains crucial to ensuring a quality education. Our staff is committed to high quality teaching and learning, and they were understandably upset by the inaccurate information that was reported.

This corrected attendance data reflects our expectations for all of us. We cannot be successful if we are not present. I applaud our school for our attendance and the positive impact it has on our students.

Andrew Linkenhoker, Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School superintendent

Northampton