Principal Dr. Jarryd Boster and Superintendent Russell Thompson shared some very positive news on attendance during the September meeting of the Pineville School Board. Attendance has been an issue all across southeast Kentucky in recent years and through the first six weeks at Pineville it is at 94.06% — a big improvement over last year and ahead of the school’s goal of 92%.

“You can see week-over-week compared to last year our attendance has improved over last year,” Boster said. “On high-attendance day we had a 95% attendance rate and considering all that was going on in our region during that week we were quite proud of that. I feel like if we hadn’t had those obstacles we would have been able to push forward even further.”

For High Attendance Day the school had drawings for prizes throughout the day, including gift cards and at the end of the day they were able to give away two iPads and two laptop computers to students.

“Just seeing those students come to school and win a computer. I wish you could have seen their faces,” Boster said..

He told the board the average daily attendance at the school for the year was at 94.06% — well ahead of their goal of 92% for the year — and they would be pushing to get that number even higher.

“We can do interventions for kids academically when they are in school. We can make a difference in their lives at school,” Boster said. “But so far we’re quite pleased with our attendance.”

Board member Chris Arnett asked what the keys were to getting the attendance up besides the incentive program.

Thompson said the school had formed an attendance committee that started meeting last spring and in the summer.

“We had money from grants that we were able to utilize (for the incentives), but Tammy Jones put together a program on relationship building that I thought was very beneficial to the staff,” he said. “That seems to be the biggest thing. All of the staff got together — and this is everybody — and we each claimed 10 kids to build that relationship with. If I have one of mine that’s not here, I’ll call and see what’s going on. Those kids know that you’re looking for them every day and are looking forward to seeing them. I think that has helped a lot.”
Thompson also said he made the decision to not have the school open on the Monday and Tuesday after the I-75 shootings based on concerns he had heard from parents. The school was reopened that Wednesday and saw 86% attendance that day.

“We just had parents that didn’t feel like they had enough information to send their kids and I think we gave them the right amount of time,” he said. “We did an NTI day on the second day and I think that got people back in the mindset of wanting to get back in school.”

While the attendance news was good, Thompson also shared that overall enrollment had dropped by about 12 kids. He said four 8th grade holdbacks had moved to Bell Central with two others moving to Tennessee. Three Foster kids had been removed from Pineville, one student joined a virtual academy and two others went to home school.

The board voted to start a wrestling program at Pineville at Boster’s request and agreed to purchase a mat for practicing that will cost close to $9,000. They also approved stipends for coaches and will allow fundraising to start for the purchase of uniforms.

Architect Ben Boggs gave an update on the football field. The new lights have been installed along with the sound system and light show. He said Gilpin Construction had agreed to paint the old fieldhouse gray to match the away bleachers and will be installing new partitions and light fixtures in the bathroom. All of the concrete work has been finished and work will begin soon on cleaning up the site. He said plans are for the school to have access to the field by September 30.

Gilpin has also agreed to sod around the entrance after a drainage issue kept the grass from taking around the sides of the field. They will come back next spring to permanently add grass to those areas.

Paving on the parking lot was expected to take place around the first of October and could be done by the time students return from Fall Break.