The student parking lot is a little emptier on early release days and the school has noticed it. The school’s funding from the state is based on daily attendance, with the school receiving approximately $50 per student per day. But on early release days, attendance drops with as many as 60 students not showing up, costing the school nearly $3,000 on a given day.

“The school district gets funding per student per day, so that is the budget we use to pay teachers, to pay for air conditioning and heating in the building, to pay for supplies, and pay for all those things,” principal Chris Mayfield said. “When the school district does a budget for the year, that’s where those funds go so we can create a budget that’s based on the number of students we have and their attendance.”

Although the issue of attendance on early release days is important to school administrators, it’s something teachers recognize too.

“Students missing on half days causes the school to miss a lot of money because they aren’t here to get tax dollars from the state and then that money cuts into the funding the school district has to provide things for the students and for the teachers,” math teacher Lindsay Weaver said. “It really hurts the school in the end when students are missing.”

With Friday being an early release day, Mayfield is trying to prevent a dramatic drop in attendance.

“My email [to parents] was one of the things we were trying to do,” Mayfield said. “The other thing that I’ve talked to our teachers about is making sure that day is also a day that they are doing meaningful instruction in classes because if it is a blowoff day and that is what the perception is then I totally understand.”

To some students that’s exactly what the perception is.

“A lot of students definitely skip on half days because it’s easy to miss and we don’t really do much in class anyways on those days,” senior Zach Gonzalez said. “I think the only people who really go are the ones who have important things to do on those days.”

Addressing parents is one way Mayfield is trying to encourage higher attendance.

“We definitely try and partner with parents around attendance and around everything we do,” Mayfield said. “My hope is that by sharing that message with parents it will help give them some encouragement when kids are asking to miss school.”

Looking at the attendance records by class, one grade’s attendance on early release days is significantly larger than the rest.

“Specifically the biggest offender is the seniors by far, they were more than twice the juniors, sophomores, and freshman,” Mayfield said. “If you add the juniors, sophomores and freshmen, their difference in percentage, the senior gap was bigger.”