Latest news, weather and high school sports for Albany and Southwest Georgia

DOUGHERTY COUNTY, GA. -- Enough is enough.

That’s what board members said at the mid-August Dougherty County School Board meeting. The board initiated a committee to look into new policies that say students must show up for the first day of school.

“As a school teacher or as a school administrator, you can’t effectively run a school when you literally have 50 or 100 people showing up each day being added to the rolls,” says School Board Chair David Maschke.

When students don’t attend until days after, teachers have to cover previous material over again, putting both students and teachers behind. A few have legitimate excuses but board members say records show the majority are on vacation or just didn’t feel like showing up.

“They don’t start taking attendance on the student until the first day the student decides to show up. You just can’t run a school system like that,” says Maschke.

Students can’t miss any more than 14 days, but that’s after the student’s first day. With some students starting after Labor Day, some are already missing up to 20 or 30 days of class.

“Right now there seems to be no repercussions for students or parents when students don’t show up to school,” says Maschke.

“We’d like to encourage all our parents to make sure their children go to school the first day and every day unless there is a really good excuse for missing they would benefit greatly from being there,” says Director of Public Information R.D. Harter.

Student attendance is not only important for students, but also the school. Attendance numbers determine how much state funding the district receives.

The committee is working with administrators on new policies and will discuss them at the board’s mid-October meeting.