Students wishing to attend Friday’s state semifinal volleyball game can get an excused absence from 3rd through 8th period if they bring the ticket stub to the attendance office on Nov. 28 with their name signed on the back.

The state tournament will take place on Friday and Saturday, Nov. 18-19, at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland. Friday’s match begins at 1 p.m. Parents will have to physically sign out students or send an email with the date and time of release to [email protected]. It is the same process as outlined last year, which was lauded as being effective and successful.

“It actually worked pretty well [last year],” principal Chris Mayfield said. “Our front desk folks had all that stuff printed out, everybody whose parents sent in the release, because parents have to sign a release. It is just an email that says ‘Hey, release my kiddo at whatever time.’ And they just printed out all that stuff, had out there already marked, and had several tables so kids didn’t have to wait in line. It actually did a great job.”

Administration encourages parents to send the emails by 9 a.m. on Friday to help ease the dismissal process. Students must also wait until after 10:35 a.m. to leave school to get an excused absence. Mayfield said the decision to excuse students attending the game was an easy one.

“It’s not uncommon for other schools to do it,” Mayfield said. “I mean, how cool that we have not only a state competition that one of our teams is in but that it’s as close as Garland?” Mayfield said. “It really is in a close enough proximity that almost everybody in our student body who wants to go probably could go. So we just go ‘What a great opportunity for our students. Let’s do it.’”