This year the school introduced a new system for students to make up credit for too many missed classes. Previously, when a student had to make up credit hours, they would go after school to the library for credit recovery. Now, students are placed on an attendance contract.
According to the Titan voice, in order for a student to earn credit in a class, the student first must pass the class with a D- or higher at the end of a semester. Students will also show improvement in attendance for all their classes, not just the one class they need to earn credit for according to associate principal David Ersig.
“What we were seeing in the credit recovery system is that it was not changing students’ behavior in terms of missing class,” Ersig said. “They would just miss a class, then go after school to credit recovery, hang out and makeup the hour they missed. Really the most important thing was to make sure students were showing up to class and being present.”
Ersig added the contract only lasts for the current semester students are in, and when someone is on a contract, they only can miss a certain number of days. Nothing changed about how many absences you are allowed to have before losing credit, 11, or how many tardies equal one absence, three. The contract tries to be stricter than credit recovery to ensure students improve their school attendance.
When asked about the change, many students seemed to appreciate the move from the old credit recovery system to the new contract system.
Parker Woodlin ’26 said he thinks the new attendance contracts are a better option than credit recovery in the library.
“Whenever I needed to make up hours, I would always hate going to credit recovery,” Woodlin said. “Now, with the contract, all that matters now is just me going to school on time.”
Woodlin is not the only person who disliked the old credit recovery system. Ella Dryden ’25 said she also prefers the new contract system and feels it will work well at Stevenson.
“I like how now all that matters now with attendance is just whether or not you show up to school and pass your classes,” Dryden said. “I think being on a contract works much better than staying after school for a few hours and not really doing much. I never did have to makeup credit, but If I had to choose between staying after school for an hour or just getting put on a contract, I would choose the contract for sure.”
