Mountain View Elementary's attendance team finds success with prize wheel, original videos

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​Despite starting this school year with suspended bus service due to the ongoing bus driver shortage, Mountain View Elementary, in East Hawai'i, has been seeing an approximately 90% average daily attendance rate. That's due to a team effort from families, teachers, administration and counselors, according to Principal Adria Medeiros. The school's attendance team developed their own attendance awareness and promotion activities last school year, which have carried on into this year.

One of their initiatives was creating a weekly video series using puppets, Kimo and Leilani, who talk about the importance of regular attendance. The videos are aired during the school's Wednesday broadcast.

Counselors also visit each classroom that achieves five or 10 days of 90% or higher attendance with a spinning prize wheel called the Attendance Wheel. The prizes on the wheel can vary by class, and teachers can submit requests for incentives (e.g., extra recess, TV time, dance party, karaoke, bubble fun, icy treats, chalk art, etc.) Classes earn letters for each day the class reaches the attendance goal. Once a class earns enough letters to spell out "H-A-W-K-S" (five days) or "W-E-A-R-E-H-A-W-K-S," (10 days), the homeroom teacher submits a referral to the counselors and students get to spin the Attendance Wheel the following Monday, with rewards redeemed that Wednesday.

The school also has an Attendance Bulletin Board displayed prominently on campus that highlights the school's overall attendance rate. Students earn two blue tokens for daily attendance - one for being present and one for being on time - which can be redeemed at the school store for notebooks, stuffed animals, erasers and other items.

Teachers also provide students and families with a Quarterly Attendance Tracker to share the importance of tracking attendance using a calendar, along with an incentive for submitting it. Students with perfect attendance or improved attendance receive a quarterly certificate and "brag tags" that can be redeemed for popcorn.

With the added obstacle of not having school bus service at the start of the school year, MVES staff adjusted the pick-up and drop-off locations to accommodate the increased number of vehicles on campus. Staff postponed the start of the Attendance Tracker incentive by one month. A larger team of support staff personally reached out to the families of students who were absent during the first few days of school to understand the reasons for their absences (e.g., issues related to the bus, moving, etc.). Staff said the most effective method for attendance outreach has been making personal phone calls to families.

Congratulations to Mountain View Elementary School for being a leader in attendance!