Proclamation signed to promote school attendance awareness

ELKINS -- Elkins Mayor Jerry Marco singed a proclamation announcing Attendance Awareness Month during a ceremony at City Hall.

During the past year, Randolph County Schools has been working hard to improve students' attendance in the county, and working with the city on the proclamation signing was just another step in promoting the importance of the issue.

"The proclamation we signed was to make people aware that our kids need to be in school," Marco told The Inter-Mountain. "I've coached for so many years and kids are near and dear to my heart, so any chance I get to sign a proclamation that will help them, I want to."

Attendance Awareness Month was proclaimed so that the community could focus on absenteeism and address the factors that cause students to miss school, in order to ensure all children an equitable opportunity to learn, grow and thrive academically, emotionally and socially.

"If you have kids that are struggling and they can't make it to school, we want people to know there are resources out there they can reach out to," Marco said. "The reason for the proclamation is to make sure people are doing the right thing and getting the kids in school -- they need to be there."

Last year, Randolph County Schools instituted the Community In Schools program, which is key in forming relationships between schools, students and the students' families, officials said.

Mark Rosencrance, Janetta Ross and Ashleigh Tenney were hired as three CIS site coordinators at separate schools in the county. Rosencrance works at Elkins High School, while Ross is at Beverly Elementary, and Tenney at Elkins Middle School.

The CIS site coordinators locate valuable community resources for students and have been working with teachers at the schools to come up with initiatives for students with good attendance, such as winning gift cards from businesses.

The three CIS site coordinators took part in the proclamation signing and were joined by Randolph County School Superintendent Debbie Schmidlen. Also attending the event were county school system employees Kim Bonnett (Truancy Diversion Officer), Schell Hopwood (Family and Community Engagement Specialist), and Rochelle Chenoweth (Attendance Director).