By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

A resolution to support a countywide initiative to combat chronic absenteeism was revisited and approved Thursday by the Benicia Unified School District Board of Trustees. The board also approved projects proposed by the Benicia Tree Foundation.

Assistant Superintendent Dr. Michael Gardner gave the board clarification on measures the district has taken on absenteeism, including increased partnership with the city police department.

BUSD, in collaboration with Benicia police, moved School Attendance and Review Board hearings from the BUSD district office to the Benicia police station, which “increased attendance from approximately 70 percent to the high 90 percent for both the 2011-12, and 2012-13 school years,” Gardner said.

He added that the Solano County District Attorney’s Office has established a new truancy court for both students who are habitual truants and parents who are “not fulfilling their legal obligations to ensure students attend school on a regular basis.”

The result, he said, was that “the BUSD has sent more parents and students to truancy court than any other school district in Solano County in those two years.”

Gardner stressed that the SARB and truancy court were not meant to be punitive, but informative. “It is meant to impress upon the family the importance of regular attendance,” he said.

“Of the families sent to court over the past few years, over 80 percent increased their performance to the point where the cases were dropped,” he said.

Gardner also spoke of “Every Minute Matters,” a “tracking system” pilot program he called “a proactive approach to chronic absenteeism.” Chronic absenteeism is defined as any student who is absent from school for 10 percent of the time, regardless of cause.

“The data we will be collecting with this tracking system will allow us to better understand which students are chronically absent, and develop proactive plans to get students back to school,” he said.

He added that BUSD’s new online program, home hospital program and other alternative educational programs will be more efficient once they get data through the new program.

He concluded: “We have one of the highest attendance rates in the county,” Gardner said. “In 2011-12 our ADA was 96.9 percent, and 12-13 was 96.3 percent.” And it’s important to remember, he said, a 1-percent increase in attendance provides $250,000 more in funding.

Trustee Andre Stewart wanted to know if the district was doing enough to support kids who have excused absences.

“For excused absences they receive all of their homework,” Gardner said. “But it still isn’t going to make up for a missed day of instruction. They’re not going to make up the lab, they’re not going to make up the interaction with other students and those sort of things … they’re doing paperwork.”

“The goal really is to get them back into the school.”

The board also approved Benicia Tree Foundation’s plan to plant trees at Benicia High School and Benicia Middle School.

Tina Marchetti, executive director of the foundation, said the goal is to expand urban forests, especially in the areas of the middle school and high school parking lots, “where shade will be a benefit, and there will be more trees filtering the air, adding aesthetic pleasure for the children, and also serving to be an educational tool, as we involve the children in the plantings.”

Marchetti said the foundation sought the board’s support so she could seek grant funding for the project. “We want to plant about 140 trees between the two sites,” she said.

The trustees approved the plan unanimously, 4-0; Trustee Gary Wing was absent.

The board’s next meeting will be an hour earlier than usual on Sept. 19, with the open session starting at 6 p.m. to allow trustees to attend a school open house.