District Newsletter March

Happy March, Comet Nation,

It’s hard to believe we are finishing up quarter 3 and headed into the final stretch of the 2022-23 school year. We have had so many things to be proud of throughout the year. One thing that happened in March will go down in the history books.

We could not reflect on the month of March without talking about the Albany Lady Comets Girls’ Basketball Team! So much can be said about this team and the coaching staff. We were given an incredible opportunity to be taken along for the ride throughout the season. As each individual game unfolded, it created another step along the path of success culminating with the team advancing to their first-ever trip to the WIAA Girls’ State Basketball tournament. The community support was something to behold as “Comet Nation” was fully represented at the Resch Center in Green Bay cheering on their Lady Comets! Congratulations on such a remarkable 2022-23 girls’ basketball season.

Comet CARE

Our students have been working very hard to earn CARE coupons for a variety of positive behaviors they are demonstrating throughout the school day. These coupons are given to students of all grade levels. It is incredible to watch our students take pride in being recognized. Whether it is a 4K or senior student dropping off a CARE coupon in the office in hopes of having their name drawn for a shirt at the end of the week, it puts a smile on our faces and theirs! We have had 8 elementary classrooms work collectively to save up 100 CARE coupons as a class. Each of these classes has earned a pizza party throughout the year to celebrate this positive teamwork.

We will celebrate our students who were selected as the recipients of the quarter 3 Respect recognition at our PBIS awards assembly on Friday, March 31st starting at approximately 2:45 pm. These award winners will also have their names shared in the April newsletter.

Attendance

Illness has certainly run its course in our district over throughout the year. I would just like to provide some insight and hopefully clarity on absences and truancy. It will never be our lens to penalize students or families because of absences. However, we do have a duty to notify you of these absences which also falls under state requirements and guidelines. We are about to enter quarter 4 which still has 47 days of school for students to attend.

Illness happens, we understand that. We are not encouraging our families to send sick students to school. Doctors' appointments are often scheduled during the school day and those also need to be attended. However, when the state looks at absence, some things are not taken into consideration. The length of the day a student is absent, if the absence is excused or unexcused, or even if the student has a doctor’s note does not remove the absence from the student’s record. Simply put, absent is absent. This can create situations where it is unfortunately unavoidable to exceed the 10+ day absences.

Our goal is to work with families to provide information and the opportunity to partner in your child/children’s education. This can best be achieved through communication and a proactive approach to absences. If you receive any attendance letter and have questions, I encourage you to contact the school and schedule a meeting to discuss this.

As always, any questions or concerns that you may have, please feel free to contact me.

Go Comets!

Mr. Ritzert