At the start of this school year, principal Mr. Craig Myers announced a new exam exemption opportunity that will allow eligible students to exempt their semester exams (excluding CCP courses).

The policy was enacted to improve attendance throughout the school, which has been upheld by a four day absence limit. The district hopes to a 94 percent attendance rate and, according to Mr. Myers, this new policy was put in place to encourage students to come to school.

Many students have openly criticized the fact that even excused absences will count against them and agree that it would be fair if they didn’t; however, the state holds students accountable for all missed days, excused or not, according to Mr. Myers.

“A person can’t help if they get sick or injured and I don’t think that it’s fair to the student that they can’t use the exam exemptions because they were out for a reason they couldn’t prevent,” junior Melayna Melton said.

Students are also encouraged to maintain good grades, as the policy states that students must maintain a grade of at least 80% to exempt that class’s exam.

Teachers and administration helped to create and enact this policy and Mr. Myers said they could potentially adjust it after this trial year. He also reports that attendance is slightly up already.

“I’m in favor of keeping it. I feel that this is a good incentive for all of our students. We gathered exam exemption policies of other local schools when we began to create our plan,” Mr. Myers said. “I think it is challenging but reachable.”