CPE Students attend school for administrator retribution
Fri, 2016-10-21 05:00
News Staff
Special to Leader-Press
It is said that revenge is sweet and Clements/Parsons Elementary is seizing this emotion to keep students in school every single day. Students with perfect attendance are getting a little payback against their administrators in a friendly game of dodgeball.
Clements/Parsons school counselor Jera Freeman said children being at school is important. One missed day can mean a lot of instructional time lost.
“Not only is being present at school important academically, it also helps schools with state and federal funding. Schools actually receive funding based on the attendance of its students which allows us to purchase materials, equipment and other items to increase learning,” Freeman said. “So any way that we can get students excited about attending school is a win for them academically and a win for the campus.”
The school hosted its first six weeks dodgeball event against the administrators. Each grade level, during its PE/Music time, had a chance to play the administrators if they were present the entire six weeks and then a game was played with the class in each grade who had the best attendance rate.
Dodgeball had the students really excited as they clapped and cheered for their friends playing, and all students wanted to participate.
“The game was so fun,” first grader Dylan White said.
Coupons were given out with a drawing after each game for free slushies from Seven Eleven.
“Students were loving the event, and the Clements Parsons staff feel like it really found an incentive that the students want to work hard for,” Freeman said. “Dodgeball is a fun and free activity for our campus to execute and promotes physical activity in our students--again a win for all. The physical activity actually left the administrative team feeling a little sore into the weekend, but it was totally worth it when we know how much fun all the students had.”
The chatter in the hallways for days following the game is about playing at the end of the next six weeks and how students are targeting the principal, Jimmy Shuck.
“Dr. Shuck is going down,” Gavin Head, a 4th grade student, said prior to the game.
Along with dodgeball, Clements/Parsons has developed other incentives to promote attendance. When classrooms spell out the words, perfect attendance, by earning a letter each day the entire class is present, they win a Popsicle or pizza party and then the school has a bike drawing at the end of the year with students who had perfect attendance all year long.