New attendance policy starts Semester II

Haleigh Jawidzik, Staff

On Jan. 26, Semester II will introduce a new attendance policy. 

“Our updated attendance protocol is that students will go to a Google Meet for their class,” said headmaster Dr. Morris. “They’ll access that Google Meet from the Google Classroom page attendance will be taken for the remote students using Google Meet.”

This allows the students to attend their class with a regular and structured schedule that replicates a normal day at PA.

“I’m not looking forward to it because I think it puts more of a constraint on attendance,” said senior Riley Hammond. “If you miss the meeting by a minute or two, you’re still marked absent but I get why they’re changing it.” 

Remote learning has proved a challenge for many students and faculty, and the new attendance policy also serves a way for students and teachers to make contact each day a class is scheduled. 

Senior Astoria Campbell said that the new attendance policy was not surprising since all of the classes required video call attendance while full-remote.

The PA administration was flexible when starting classes in September, but now that half the year has already been completed, the expectations are clear and more stringent.

“I think the attendance policy will be a good way to offer a sense of stability to students by allowing them to check in with their teachers everyday,” said music teacher Ms. Macdonald. 

Ms. McDonald acknowledged that the policy may offer some challenges, but the PA community is used to confronting challenges by now. 

“This year is all about adapting and taking things as they come,” she said. “The students and staff at PA have shown that we are highly adaptable and willing to make the best out of this year.”