The Ramaz administration put a new attendance policy into place for the 2024-2025 school year. The policy states that if you miss 10% of your classes, the highest letter grade you can receive in that class is a B+. If you miss 20% of your classes, the highest letter grade you can receive is a C+, and so on.
In an interview with Rabbi Frank, he said that the motivation behind this new policy is as follows: “The overall goal is we want everybody in school. And we understand that sometimes people are going to miss school for all kinds of reasons, sick, Bar Mitzvah, mental health day, whatever. So I think that in order to get to feel like you’re fully succeeding in school, you should be in school 90% of the time.” This policy can be confusing to some, as it is dependent on class attendance, not necessarily on daily attendance. For each course a student has, they have a certain number of classes, which differ depending on the subject. So, if a student is out sick on a day that they have a less frequent class, that absence has much more of an impact than it does missing a class that meets 5 times a week. Depending on their schedule and Ramaz programming, if a student misses a total of 12 days of school, they might still be eligible for an A+ in certain classes, but will only be able to get as high as a B+ in others.
However, Rabbi Frank claims that he “will take into account these discrepancies if it comes to missing more in one class than another.” The policy also states that if you are at a school sponsored event such as a Ramaz sports game, choir trip, play rehearsal, UN rally, etc., the attendance policy does not apply. This alleviates stress for students and gives them the freedom not to think twice before participating in a cool club, rally, or other such activities.
Rabbi Frank wants the students involved in school and at school extracurricular activities and this policy supports that. “It is really up to the parents to decide when students can miss school. My goal, my job, is to create a school community where people are here learning as much as possible and are all under the same roof.” Rabbi Frank’s ultimate goal is to have a present student body who are involved and feel unified and together during the school day.
