School Hours

SCHOOL HOURS
The school day begins at promptly at 8:00 a.m. and ends at 2:20 p.m. Students should not arrive prior to 7:40 a.m.

ABSENCES
In the event of an absence, parents are to call the school attendance line at 508-376-7010 (select option 1) between 7:00 A.M. and 8:00 A.M. If the parent does not call the school by 10:00 A.M., the school will notify the parent at home or work.

Any loss of time from school is to be avoided. Parents and students should guard against all unnecessary absences. If a student is absent, it is his/her responsibility to go to each subject teacher immediately upon return and make arrangements to make up any work missed. Tests, examinations and other work are counted as no credit unless they are made up within the same number of days as was missed. Failure for the course is probable unless the work missed is completed by the assigned date.

Parents may obtain a list of homework missed for students absent two (2) consecutive days or more. They should call the school early in the day to request homework. They should also call prior to picking it up. Homework should be requested only if it is possible for it to be done during the absence.

Excused absences for the purposes of this policy are:
● Family bereavement (parent note or call required).
● Religious holiday (parent note or call required).
● Absences due to illness or a doctor's appointment with written verification from a doctor (parent note or call required).
● Suspension for violation of the school disciplinary code if, during the suspension, all work is completed and the regulations of the suspension policy are followed.
● College interview/visit (limit three per year) documented on college letterhead.
● Court appointment with official court time and date verification.
● Nurse, guidance, or administrative appointment reported to office by said staff.
● Driver's license appointments (parent note or call required).
● Absence from school for vacation purposes is discouraged. Every attempt should be made to schedule student vacations in accordance with the published school calendar. To do otherwise gives the impression that daily attendance at school is not of the highest priority. All work missed during a vacation must be made up within the same number of school days as the vacation days or the student will receive no credit for the missing work. If a student is going to be absent more than three days, he/she needs to fill out a teacher notification (green) slip and have all the teachers sign it before leaving for vacation.

Students who wish to have an absence excused must present the required documentation to the office by the third school day following the absence. There will be no extensions.

Examples of non-excused absences (not a complete list)
● Truancy
● Class cutting
● Illness without verification by a parent or doctor
● Unnecessary absences from a class as determined by administration

For each five (5) unexcused absences from a class, a student shall have one (1) credit reduced from the potential credit available for that course. Twenty-five (25) unexcused absences shall result in the total loss of credit for the course. Note: this computation is based on full year courses. Semester courses or those that meet less frequently shall be pro-rated based on the frequency of meetings.

Cutting of classes and/or detention
If a student misses more than 20 minutes of a class with no valid excuse, he/she will receive NO CREDIT for that class and the infraction will count as an unexcused absence. A record will be kept of the student cutting classes as follows:
● No make up work will be allowed.
● A cut will be noted and will count towards the 5 cut rule where credit may be lost.
● One detention will be given for a one period cut and two detentions will be given if the cut is a double period.

Dismissals
If a student is requesting early dismissal, a parental note must be brought to the office at the beginning of the day. This note will explain the reason for the dismissal. If a student does not bring in a note on the morning of the dismissal, a parent must come to the high school and dismiss the student in person. Only in emergency situations will early dismissal be allowed via telephone and must be followed up with a parental note explaining the reason for the dismissal. If a student is dismissed for a doctor’s appointment, the student must return with a doctor’s note verifying the appointment.  

Tardiness to School
Punctuality is to be encouraged. It is a valuable trait in both the school and work place. Students entering late to school will report to the office and will be issued an excused or unexcused tardy slip. The student will then give the tardy slip to his/her teacher.

Tardy Excused
If a student has a tardy excuse to class then the teacher will admit the student to class. It is then the student's responsibility to return to the teacher at the end of the day to see what work he/she missed and to make up all missing assignments by the next day.

Excused tardies for the purpose of this policy are:
● Verified doctor's appointment (doctor’s note required).
● Pre-planned tardy (parents must notify the school prior to 8:00 A.M. and students must present a parental note upon arrival.)
● Emergency situations that necessitate tardiness (parents must notify the school before 8:00 A.M. and state the reason for the emergency). All students with excused tardies must make up all work missed by the next school day.

Tardy Unexcused
● A student who is tardy more than half of the class to which he/she is late (8:23 AM or later) will be considered absent from that class.
● If a student is tardy unexcused to school and arrives late to his/her first block class, the teacher of that class will count three unexcused tardies that are less than 23 minutes into the class as a cut of the class.
● An hour detention will be assigned for every three unexcused tardies that occur throughout the day. Hence after the first three, six, nine, etc. unexcused tardies in a class are recorded, a detention will be assigned and a cut will be noted. Any time a student is tardy unexcused 8:23 AM or later, or does not arrive in school until the following period, the teacher will mark the student as cutting a class. An unexcused cut is the same as if the student did not come at all and will count toward a loss of credit in the class. In addition, detentions are assigned for each cut.
● Any student who comes to school tardy unexcused will serve one hour of office detention for every three such tardies.
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