Maeser Updates Special Edition: Important Attendance & Schedule Updates for 2022-23

In This Edition

Student Attendance & NGs, Advisory Fridays, 22-23 Class Schedules

We hope you’re having an enjoyable and safe summer vacation. It’s hard to believe we’ll be back to school in about a month!

To help students and families prepare for our return to school, we would like to provide some additional information and clarification about Student Attendance and Advisory Fridays for the upcoming 2022-23 school year.

Student Attendance & NGs

Maeser’s intense focus on academics and mentoring relationships grows out of our mission to “empower and inspire students to think critically, learn continually, and communicate effectively…to better themselves and their community.” Consistent school attendance is crucial to achieving Maeser’s mission. The opportunities lost through student absences and tardiness leave gaps that are difficult to fill. Consequently, this school year Maeser is reverting back to our pre-pandemic attendance policy, including assigning NGs (No Grade) for attendance issues.

Students are allowed any combination of six tardies and/or excused absences per class, per term without any additional consequence. Upon receiving the seventh tardy/excused absence, the student will receive an NG in that class. This means that unless the NG is made up (more below), then the student will not receive credit for the class and the class will have to be repeated.

Students who receive one unexcused absence (i.e., skipping class or “sluffing”) will automatically receive an NG.

You can find additional information about how to excuse absences in the Attendance Policy on our school website.

Making up NGs

If a student receives an NG, they must come to Advisory Friday and attend the class in which they have the NG. Students are responsible for picking up and filling out the NG Make-up Form (available in the Front Office), taking it to the appropriate class and having a teacher sign it, and then returning the completed form to the Front Office.

Because Advisory Fridays are every week, students will have ample time to make up any NGs. All NGs must be made up no later than two weeks after the end of a term.

A more detailed explanation about the process for making up NGs is included in the Attendance Policy on our school website.

Advisory Fridays

Guiding Principles of Advisory Friday

Creating and strengthening meaningful mentoring relationships between students and faculty is a hallmark of a Maeser education. The overarching purpose of Advisory Fridays is to allow students the opportunity for increased one-on-one interaction with teachers. Additionally, we’ve come to realize additional benefits of Advisory Fridays such as administering tests, providing students with opportunities to catch up on work, giving teachers additional preparation and collaboration time, and having dedicated time for special education services and mental health counseling without having to pull students out of class during the week.

While the actual logistics of Advisory Fridays are different from the rest of the week, Advisory Fridays are still school days, and student learning should take precedence over things like vacations, appointments, extracurricular activities, and jobs. Social interaction is important, but Advisory Fridays are not designed to serve as free time for students to socialize.

Timeline & Schedule for Advisory Fridays

STUDENTS

  • Students should complete each week’s Advisory attendance assignment in Google Classroom at the beginning of the school day each Friday. The attendance assignment is due BEFORE NOON on Fridays. Students must submit the attendance assignment in Google Classroom even if they are on campus that day.
  • Students are allowed on campus from 9-12. Students who are on campus need to be in a classroom working.
  • Students who arrive before 9:00 are invited to sit quietly in the hallway and get started on their work.
  • Students should be picked up promptly after they have completed their work.
  • Students who are waiting to be picked up are invited to be in their Advisory classroom. They should not simply roam the halls or play in the gym or play on the field outside unsupervised.

TEACHERS

  • Teachers are expected to be available to students on campus from 9-12.
  • Faculty and department meetings are usually from 8-9.
  • Teachers should take a lunch break sometime between 12-1.
  • Additional collaboration and preparation time is from 1-3.
  • Practices, rehearsals, and other extracurricular activities can begin at 12.

Expectations for Advisory Fridays

Because Advisory Fridays are school days, students should plan on attending in person if they have make-up work, need extra help, or have been asked to come in by their teacher. Additionally, teachers may assign tests, labs, or projects that require students to attend in person on Advisory Fridays. Teachers will be expected to communicate with students and parents about upcoming assignments, missing work, tests, or other reasons for requiring in person attendance on Advisory Fridays.

Parents and students should check PowerSchool often. If PowerSchool indicates that students have an F in any class, students are required to attend Advisory day on campus and should report to the class in which the F has been earned to receive additional help. It is often helpful for students and parents to review PowerSchool together each Thursday and plan Advisory Friday accordingly.

Please do not schedule extracurricular activities, appointments, or jobs during Advisory Friday time (9 am-12 pm).

First Friday of Each Term

On the first Advisory Friday of each term, ALL students will attend their Advisory class in person to set goals for the upcoming term, as well as review goals and progress from the previous term. These special Advisory Fridays will be posted on the school calendar, advertised, and reminders will be sent to students and parents.

Attendance-taking on Advisory Fridays

Each Friday morning, Advisory teachers will post an Advisory Question in their Google Classroom. All students, whether they come to campus or not, must complete the Advisory Question in their Advisory Google Classroom by 12:00pm on Friday. Students who are on campus are invited to go to their Advisory classroom and complete the Advisory Question there. Students who complete the Attendance Question after 12:00pm on Fridays will be marked tardy. Students who do not complete the Attendance Question at all will be marked absent.

Attendance Make-up

Maeser is returning to our pre-pandemic Attendance Policy. Students are allowed any combination of six tardies and/or excused absences per class, per term without any additional consequence. Upon receiving the seventh tardy/excused absence, the student will receive an NG in that class. This means that unless the NG is made up, then the student will not receive credit for the class and the class will have to be repeated.

In order to make-up an NG, students must attend the class they have the NG in on Advisory Fridays. Additional information about the NG make-up process can be found in the Attendance Policy on our school website.

22-23 Class Schedules

The PowerSchool parent and student portals are currently offline to allow us to perform summer updates and maintenance, and to create student schedules for 2022-23.

The parent and student portals will reopen on Monday, August 8 with 2022-23 schedule information. Schedule change information will be given at that time.

If your student is new to Maeser this year, you will receive an email during the week of August 1-5 with your parent login information for PowerSchool.