Photo by Time Hyndes, Sioux City Journal
SIOUX CITY — Bryant Elementary students were given the opportunity to throw water at Principal Angela Holcomb on Tuesday as a reward for attending school.
The new initiative, called surprise attendance days, is intended to reward students for attending school, said Bryant Attendance Specialist Tara Holdsworth. Students will not know until they get to school if it is a surprise day; they also won’t know what the surprise activities are.
“We’re hoping that it creates that kind of mystery … and it makes them continue to come to school on top of everything else that they already get to do at school that’s fun,” Holdsworth said.
Tuesday was the first surprise of the year. Students lined up and threw cups of water at Holcomb, who was sitting in a small pool in front of the school, dressed in a cap and rain poncho.
“It was awesome,” said fifth-grader Nora Taubert. “It was a very good idea.”
Taubert said while she goes to school because she’s told to, she also goes to school because she wants to so she can do things like splash her principal.
When asked if she thought her classmates had fun, she responded “Who didn’t have fun?”
Holcomb pitched the idea and volunteered to be soaked with water by the whole school.
“Anything I can do to help motivate [the students] to be here at school is a good thing,” she said. “I think they need to see that as adults, we are also along this journey with them and we are here to support them and we are here to put ourselves out there and try new things and be silly and have fun with them.”
The school’s attendance goal is 96 percent for the year, Holdsworth said. Last year the school had 95 percent attendance and already this year they have higher than average attendance.
Since Bryant doesn’t have busing, getting students to school is the biggest challenge Bryant's parents face, Holdsworth said. Other factors such as weather, family issues, and emergencies are all other reasons students regularly miss school.
The new initiative is a way to celebrate all kids for their attendance. Last year, Bryant gave out perfect attendance awards, but this year, Holdsworth said they tried to think “outside the box” to celebrate every student’s attendance.
“A lot of our staff, we don’t even have perfect attendance, to expect that from kids is hard because kids get sick, things happen, life happens,” she said. “We want to celebrate the kids who are showing up and are consistently here.”
The surprise attendance days will occur approximately once a month, with a variety of different activities planned for the students.
View the full article by Caitlin Yamada on the Sioux City Journals website.