THE
LITTLE HAWK Vol. 108
Iowa City, IA
Issue 1
October 2024
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Attendance Policy Impacted by New Iowa Law Senate File 2435 requires City High and all Iowa schools to update their attendance policy to address absenteeism By Martha Willard With the start of the new school year, there has been a slight change to the City High attendance policy. This change comes from a new Iowa law that changes how absences are defined. According to the Gazette, this law’s purpose is to target chronic absenteeism, but it also makes understanding the rules around attendance more confusing. “It’s actually pretty confusing, and I think it induces a lot of fear where there doesn’t need to be fear,” Taylor Scudder said. “They were trying to do it to be more equitable. One of the things that legislation did was take out the difference between excused and unexcused absences.” While the goal of the law was to make attendance policies more equitable, students have differing opinions. “I think it’s weird because if you’re excused, that means a parent had to be okay with you missing school. And so that means it’s more justified; where it’s unexcused, it is just skipping.” Malorie James ‘27 said. Scudder’s job is to keep track of student attendance and contact parents when students are not going to school or not showing up to class. “I first reach out to the number that we have on file, and I call; if I
can’t get anyone, I leave a message, and then I document everything that I do. If a call doesn’t work, I use talking points a lot, because people respond to texts much faster than phone calls, then I send an email, and most of the time, one of those three things get me in contact with the family, and we can figure out what the barriers are,” Scudder said. After Scudder talks to the family, the next step is overcoming challenges that stop students from coming to school. Some barriers, like transportation, aren’t always in a family or student’s control. “Another barrier right now is with teenagers; your parents can’t go into your bedroom, pick you up, and take you to school like you can when you’re little. So finding ways to remind you guys why school is meaningful and how it impacts your future so that you want to show up every day is another barrier,” Scudder said. Scudder notes how one way she reminds students how school is meaningful is by reminding them of the purpose of being in school. “When you grow up, you have a job, right? And you have a reason that you go to that job every day. So you find your why. For kids, we have to find your why in school. Why are you taking those classes to focus on what career you want, on the future, or what you want after high school to look like?”
The classroom is filled with mock trial students discussing and planning for their regional competition. However, these students are not at the regular meeting place in Mr Schumann’s room. They are at South East Middle School. CONTINUED ON PG 3
STAFF EDITORIAL
Iowa’s New Attendance Laws Do Nothing for Chronic Absenteeism By Lily Rantanen amd Bella Young
GRAPHIC BY KATE MEIS
The election follows last year’s election in which Nick Tran ran and won the presidency alone By Lily Rantanen
Class President Nick Tran ’25 poses with newly elected Vice President Ania Naso ’25. PHOTO BY LILY RANTANEN
changes that I want to see made, and I had my opportunity,” Naso said after the election. “I’m actually pretty surprised [that I was elected].”
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The impact and goal of expanding the program to younger grades By Yomi Hemley
Student Senate Elects Vice President
After a selection of short speeches from candidates and a vote from Student Senate members, Ania Naso ‘25 was chosen as Student Senate vice president Tuesday morning. Naso wants to focus on better food and drink at dances, especially homecoming. She highlighted the importance of providing food and drink for underclassmen, which she said would make the dance feel a little more special. “I feel like it’s really depressing that [the underclassmen] only have water at homecoming,” Naso said. “They don’t even have water cups. They have to drink it out of the fountain,” “I wanted to run for vice president because there are a lot of
Mock Trial Expands to South East Middle School
Unlike the senior class president elections, where only seniors could vote, anyone who showed up to the student senate meeting could vote for vice president. This is in line
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with the elections for secretary and treasurer. The decision to hold an election for vice president is an unconventional shift from the norm. Usually, candidates for senior class president run with a running mate. However, Nick Tran chose not to select a vice president last spring. That said, Tran was pleased with the outcome of the election. “[The outcome of the election] was pretty good,” Tran said. “[Ania and I] will talk and work things out together.” But the vice president election isn’t the only vote on the recent docket. All City High students are able to vote for this year’s homecoming theme, and next Tuesday, elections for secretary and treasurer will take place in Mr. Tygrett’s room at 8:15 am.
The Little Hawk
The Iowa State Legislature is only looking at the big picture of overall attendance and not the specific reasons that students are chronically absent, so they are unable to come up with good plans to combat truancy. Instead, they have passed this nonsensical, unhelpful law that does nothing to fix the root causes of chronic absenteeism.
MUSIC REVIEW
‘Rains In Heaven’
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By Claire Hartwig