Colleagues,
It was brought to our attention that teachers are being asked by the District to verify student attendance in an effort to correct some “disconnects” that the District identified (see attached information). We contacted Elizabeth Hoffer, the District’s Associate Director for Student Attendance, and have the following clarification:
– This is a request from the District, not a directive. Please immediately notify RTA’s Martha Keating <maskerade6@aol.com> or Margaret Sergent <mmsergent@rochesterteachers.com> if any administrator represents this as a directive.
– If you believe that your original recording of student attendance is accurate, please feel free to so indicate in response to the District’s request.
We consider this request to be out-of-unit work that belongs in the clerical domain, not the work of teachers. Teachers’ primary responsibility is to teach. Teachers do have a responsibility to take attendance accurately but saddling teachers with the additional responsibility to resolve the District’s clerical needs represents an undue burden that could adversely impact teaching and learning.
Please feel free to contact Martha or Margaret, both cc’d here, if you have any related questions, need further clarification, or need support or assistance.
Adam Urbanski, RTA President
—–Original Message—–
From: Hoffer, Elizabeth <Elizabeth.Hoffer@RCSDK12.ORG>
To: Keating, Martha (RTA) <maskerade6@aol.com>
Cc: Kania, Karl J <Karl.Kania@RCSDK12.ORG>
Sent: Thu, May 20, 2021 3:01 pm
Subject: RE: Disconnect between classroom and special
Dear Martha,
Attached are the communications sent to principals and secretaries yesterday and appearing in Leadership Link.
Close inspection of attendance data revealed that some students received one P-Sync or one P-Async for special area classes but were marked absent in homeroom. Elementary attendance is only calculated through homeroom attendance. Those teachers who marked students present for one class although all other teachers marked students absent for the day are asked to verify that the attendance they entered is correct and make adjustments if needed.
We actually trying to record attendance for students in the daily code who may not have attended homeroom for one reason or another. We are not asking anyone to change any attendance. If a student attended a specials class and missed homeroom, the attendance would be Tardy in homeroom. This reflects that the student was not in homeroom but joined later in the day. If a student did some work asynchronously, the Homeroom code would change to P-Async reflecting that the student was not in person or synchronous during class time, but completed work offline or on a learning platform.
Karl and I spoke earlier today about possibly IM&T running a job to make the corrections in the HR field since this is impacting many teachers, however I first want teachers to verify the accuracy of what they entered before any changes are made to the daily code. It is our intent to make this as easy as possible for teachers while accurately reflecting attendance for students.
I hope this clears up some of the confusion.
REVISED Student Attendance Records Clean-Up Memo
Using PowerSchool to Verify and Correct K-6 Student Daily Attendance