Lance Creech works on his computer in the attendance office Febraury 5 at Hastings Senior High.
If you are in the halls towards the start of class, you might see Lance Creech, the HHS Attendance Coordinator.
Throughout the school day, Creech can be found visiting different classes to pull students who have an unexcused absence as part of his job as Attendance Coordinator.
Creech previously worked as the Attendance Coordinator from 2013 to 2020. When he first started working at HHS, he was taught to talk to students face-to-face about their attendance by former principal Thomas Szlanda and former assistant principal Rick Ripperger.
“It’s kind of the process that [Dr. Szlanda and Mr. Ripperger] used again, just to open up a line of communication… In the grand scheme of things, if our attendance was perfect, I wouldn’t have a job. So we’re just, again, trying to do what’s best for the students,” Creech said. “Open up that line of communication between students and administration, understand the process, and understand that we are here to try and make this a better experience for them.”
By opening up the line of communication about their attendance with students, Creech hopes to encourage students to take the responsibility for their attendance upon themselves.
“When I did this job the first time, that’s kind of the way I was taught, because oftentimes, you know, kids weren’t aware that they were unexcused. Or maybe the teacher just marked it incorrectly,” Creech said. “So mistakes do happen, but what we’re trying to do is to get kids to understand the accountability, that their attendance is their responsibility.”
By students taking responsibility for their attendance, and hopefully reducing future absences, Creech hopes to reduce challenges that come with having lots of unexcused absences in the school, including teachers having to reteach material and not knowing where students are during the school day.
“It puts our teachers in a bad position, having to re-teach lessons or get kids caught up. So the higher our attendance, the better our teachers can be,” Creech said. “And all in all, we have a safer system because many times kids probably don’t understand there are safety issues that happen. You know, in this day and age with schools and all of the bad things that can happen in the school setting, at times, we need to know where our students are at. We are accountable for our students when it comes to their parent or guardian. You know, once they leave our building, the parents and guardians need to have an understanding that we’re doing what’s best for the kid.”
Overall, the daily average attendance rate at the school has increased by 3.79 percent. As the school’s overall attendance rate increases, it allows administration and teachers to have more time to look at bigger problems other than truancy.
“I think it’s a situation that if kids are in the classroom where they should be, teachers can do a better job because they’re not doing special prep, special planning to give other students that are just skipping an opportunity to pass a class,” Creech said. “So I think, by and large, anytime we can have better attendance, I think it eases a lot of burden on our teachers and administrators that they can focus on bigger picture things, rather than just dealing with daily attendance issues.”
At the end of the day, Creech wants to help students with serving detention hours and their attendance overall, but he encourages students to take the first step, such as putting in effort to come talk to him or make up the detention hours they have acquired.
“I [want to let] kids know that I do want to see them be successful. I do want to see them enjoy their high school experience,” Creech said. “But if they’re willing to come in and talk to me and, you know, I’m not as willing to work with a kid that’s got 25 hours of detention two days before prom and wants to go to prom and hasn’t made up any detention time, but if a kid has been diligent about making up time and coming to me with solutions and not coming to me with more problems, that are open, and they’re honest, and they want to have tough conversations, I think that’s a good thing for both people. It helps me get to know the kid a little bit better and understand, but at the same time, I need to see some effort on their part too.”
