Larua Enos' classroom. Photo taken by Celeste Hanson.
Though absenteeism at Hastings High School dropped by 8.9% since last year, Principal Jeff Linden is still looking at more ways to support students for the next semester and following years.
Based on last year’s data, the daily average attendance rate rose from an 85% average to 89% for the 2024-2025 school year. This year’s daily average attendance has maintained a study 89% for the 2025-2026 fall semester. At this time, the Freshmen currently have a 91.5% average, followed by the Sophomores with an 89.9% and the Juniors and Seniors round out the current daily average attendance rate of 86.5%. Linden attributes the overall attendance increase among students to the half-credit system implemented last year.
“This deterred some kids, you know, ‘Hey, I better get to school, or I can lose credits for graduation.’ So, that’s helped,” Linden said.
Jeff Linden and the School Improvement Team plan on increasing graduation credits to 250 in order to match other schools of the similar size and further combat chronic absenteeism; Chronic absenteeism is when a student misses 10% or more of school.
“So we’re just asking, Hey, if we’re going to request you to sign up for 250 hours, we’re just asking you to get all 250, really,” Linden said.
Linden has been helping students with absences for the past three and a half years. His continued goal is to make school feel less of a hassle and a place where students can enjoy themselves.
“We’ve really tried to develop a welcoming and warm environment for everybody… because when I [first] got here, it may not have been that way,” Linden said. “We’ve really worked hard… to make it a place that people want to come [to] and not dread.”
For some students, medical issues, climate conditions, or different driving situations can affect their attendance. There are exceptions to medical situations and an appeals process students can go through.
“We work really hard to try to help kids break the barriers so they can be at school,” Linden said.
Linden says he understands the different home conditions of students can make attending school difficult. He works with Lance Creech and Pedroza, reaching out to families and working with them to help the student’s attendance.
“Creech… he’s like level one [when] talking to kids every day about their attendance,” Linden said.
For students who have perfect attendance, they are rewarded in the form of a break where they can socialize and eat snacks like ice cream or candy bars. This event is held by the Hastings High PBIS team led by Megan Steinhauer.
“We have our perfect attendance parties every quarter to where we’re trying to reward the kids that are showing up,” Linden said. “What they’re trying to do is encourage kids.”
