Amplified: The Chesapeake Public Schools Podcast

#AttendanceMattersVA

• Chesapeake Public Schools • Season 1 • Episode 2

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School is back in session and have you ever wondered what it's like to juggle a multitude of responsibilities as a high school senior? Buckle up as we introduce Kiera Whiteman, a senior at Deep Creek High School and SCA president. Kiera gives us a glimpse into her world, filled with diverse activities, from Scholastic Bowl to raising chickens. As you listen, you'll find yourself engrossed in Kiera's experiences and her exciting new role as co-chair of the Hospitality and HQ Committee for VSCA. She also shares her top three nuggets of wisdom for incoming high school students. Her insights encourage perseverance and inspire students to venture out of their comfort zones. 

Also, September is Attendance Awareness Month and Yvette Lagares from the Office of Student Enrollment and Attendance takes us through her journey where she found her passion for the attendance program. In her conversation with us, Yvette unwraps the significant role of attendance in fostering student success and setting a positive example for future adults. #AttendanceMattersVA


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Kiera Whiteman:

Rachel Iman, I'm a second grade teacher at Greenbrier Primary. I am super excited. This has been a dream of mine since I was a little little kid and I'm just excited to welcome the future of Chesapeake and hopefully teach them lots of cool stuff and built some great relationships.

Matt Graham:

Welcome to Amplified: The Chesapeake Public Schools podcast!

Richard Babb:

Chesapeake Schools is located in the Hampton Roads area of South Eastern Virginia. We serve 40,000 students in 45 schools and three centers. This podcast is designed to tell the stories behind our story and to introduce and celebrate the people and programs that make us one of the premier school districts in Virginia.

Matt Graham:

All right here we are back for our second episode, and that was first year teacher Rachel Iman from Greenbrier Primary School, at the very beginning, sharing what she is looking forward to this school year. You can tell how excited she is, right, richie.

Richard Babb:

Oh, no doubt about it.

Matt Graham:

I mean that was from the new teacher orientation and that was a lot of excitement in the room actually, yeah, and some nervousness too honestly, yeah, they were a little nervous, but I think they're excited for the school year that was put on by the Department of Professional Development and they put that out every year and they actually had a guest speaker, michael Bonner from the Ron Clark Academy, come and speak and he did a great job.

Richard Babb:

So that was really cool and the students are kind of excited now that they're back in attendance at school. You were able to go to Deep Creek High.

Matt Graham:

Yes, I was able to stop by Deep Creek High School. I had a great conversation with a senior there, kiera Whiteman. We talked about a lot of stuff, especially with the start of the school year. We even talked about chickens. I mean, it was awesome. We talked about yeah, she's a chicken tender, did you know?

Kiera Whiteman:

that no.

Matt Graham:

She's a chicken tender. She has chickens, I mean. Besides that, she does a ton of stuff.

Richard Babb:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, very involved, okay, well, let's take a listen.

Matt Graham:

All right Sounds good. So this is Matt Graham, and I am here with Kiera Whiteman, a senior at Deep Creek High School. She is also the SCA president and she's in the Science and Medicine Academy, and yesterday she found out she is the co-chair of the Hospitality and HQ Committee for VSCA, the Virginia Student Council Association. Kiera, welcome to the podcast.

Kiera Whiteman:

Thank you for having me.

Matt Graham:

Yes, and we are here on site at Deep Creek High School. Kiera, can you tell us a little bit more about you? Like when we were talking to Ms Garrett, she was saying that you are involved in so many things.

Kiera Whiteman:

Okay, so I was also in Scholastic Bowl last year, which was really fun first year doing that. We're going to go again next year or this year through the Science and Medicine Academy. I got two chickens. So, I'm a chicken tender. I have a t-shirt that says that it's great. Let's see. What else do I do? I wrote a whole list of this last night, like not even trying.

Matt Graham:

Are you prepping for, like, some applications or anything like that?

Kiera Whiteman:

Yeah, I'm just trying because I realized I wear a lot of hats and so I was like huh, I don't have a list of that. I'm also an NHS. I have volunteered for the past almost six years at Rewrote Church doing childcare. Okay.

Matt Graham:

Well, it seems like you are out there volunteering doing a bunch of stuff. I actually own some chickens as well. I had three, and we named them after my grandmothers. We had Marina, betty and Grace. They ate the grubs and the grass. The kids loved trying to catch them and they gave us fresh eggs every morning. So enough about chickens, except for the fact that I'm getting kind of hungry. So, kira, this is your final year as a Hornet.

Kiera Whiteman:

I know, it's weird.

Matt Graham:

Have you been through Deep Creek like your whole life? What other schools were you at?

Kiera Whiteman:

No, I was actually born in California and. I went to. I started kindergarten, in preschool in Florida. Then we moved back to California where I finished kindergarten and then I was homeschooled for first grade and I don't remember where I was all the other grades but I know. Third grade I was in Idaho and then also Virginia, but in Virginia Beach. And then I came to Chesapeake Public Schools in like halfway through the fourth grade at Crestwood Intermediate, then I did Crestwood Middle and now I'm here All right, awesome.

Matt Graham:

So your experience at Chesapeake Public Schools has been.

Kiera Whiteman:

It's been great so far. Very nice.

Matt Graham:

Yeah, awesome. And what are things that you are looking forward to. Now it's your final year, your senior year. What are you looking forward to?

Kiera Whiteman:

I love that I get to do all sorts of crazy things as SCA president and in the advisory committee for VSCA. I'm looking forward to working with some people in Hopewell who's they are my co-chair for VSCA and we're going to decorate. We had the meeting on Saturday where we picked co-chairs and everything and we've already got a million ideas and we are working through which ones are logical and logistical and all that and then which ones might not be such a great idea yeah.

Kiera Whiteman:

Just looking forward to finishing off strong and trying to make new traditions.

Matt Graham:

Okay, that's nice. Now that school's been in session for a couple of weeks right when it's been almost a month now what's it been like? Has there been anything new and exciting that's taken place here at Deep Creek?

Kiera Whiteman:

It's been a lot of fun so far. We did something very new this year. We did a back to school bash, which was kind of like a block party for everyone in the school.

Matt Graham:

Oh, that's awesome.

Kiera Whiteman:

Yeah, we partnered with the elementary school. You can literally walk to it from our front doors and we took over their parking lot and we brought in food trucks and a DJ and we had games and everyone just kind of hung out and it was great. And then they either got shuttled or walked over to the football stadium at the middle school for a neon themed home game.

Matt Graham:

Oh my gosh, that's awesome.

Kiera Whiteman:

And then we did a back to school spirit week this year, which we've never done before, to my knowledge.

Matt Graham:

And it went well, it went really well.

Kiera Whiteman:

I think our most popular day was either White Lie Wednesday or Barbenheimer, which was Pink versus Black.

Matt Graham:

Oh yes.

Kiera Whiteman:

People loved that.

Matt Graham:

Yeah, because of the movie that's been out, the Barbenheimer. I like that. Good, that sounds like a lot of fun.

Kiera Whiteman:

It was.

Matt Graham:

Yeah, that's a great way to start the year. I mean, sometimes they wait for the spirit week, for homecoming.

Kiera Whiteman:

But you know that's in the works already. We've got that.

Matt Graham:

Yeah, what's that going to be?

Kiera Whiteman:

Oh, it's going to be. I don't remember the days off the top of my head, but it's like Netflix themed kind of, so we've got all of our days based off of Netflix shows.

Matt Graham:

Oh, that's going to be fun. It's going to be so much fun.

Kiera Whiteman:

We've got to dance this year, which was not official for the past few years, so I'm happy about that.

Matt Graham:

Yeah, so in your helping organize and do all this stuff behind the scenes for the school, that's great, that's great and you definitely you have some help too, right.

Kiera Whiteman:

A lot of help Okay.

Matt Graham:

And what are your plans after school?

Kiera Whiteman:

I think I want to go on the pre-med track. I like the idea of working with kids and doing something medical, so I'm thinking like neonatology or pediatric oncology right now. I went and visited University of Richmond over the summer and that was like the most beautiful campus ever. And I really want to go there, even though it's like in a city it's kind of off to the side and surrounded by trees and big houses, so it feels kind of more like a retirement community, but like in the best way possible.

Matt Graham:

Yeah, it's been the best way, all right. At the beginning of this episode, we had a new teacher sharing what they're excited for for the school year. What is some advice now that the school year has been going? What is some advice that you might give to the families and students as they begin the school year?

Kiera Whiteman:

Okay. So lots of people are going to tell you that you got to stay on the ball with your work, Otherwise it's all going to crash down on you at the same moment. I definitely say that I was a COVID freshman so I didn't really understand the like impact that high school has on the rest of your life. I mean, it's a really important time to like branch out and find where you're supposed to be and where you want to be.

Matt Graham:

Right. So if you could tell, like a student in middle school hey, when you're coming up to high school here's my top three things I would say to you for advice what would that be?

Kiera Whiteman:

Oh, okay, probably number one find like a club that really speaks to you. For me that was SCA, because I'd already been in SCA for three years throughout middle school. Number two probably try something new. I like Jeopardy, so Scholastic Bowl made sense to me and it's technically counted as a sport, so I'm a sports person.

Matt Graham:

There you go, that counts.

Kiera Whiteman:

Yeah, and then number three, I don't know. Try to take some time where you're not doing anything like make time from your time.

Matt Graham:

I think that's great advice.

Kiera Whiteman:

Schoolwork piles up and all your extracurriculars. They feel like a lot sometimes, but you want all of them.

Matt Graham:

All right, all right. Is there anything else that you would like to share with our Chesapeake Public Schools family as we begin this new year?

Kiera Whiteman:

Perseverance is key, like, just keep going with it, you got it All right, well, thank you so much, kira.

Matt Graham:

It's been great having you on the podcast. We hope you have a great year and we wish you nothing but success in the future. It sounds like you got a lot of avenues planned out If you needed to go different channels you.

Matt Graham:

You're going to find your path, so congratulations, and it's been a pleasure talking with you, thank you. Did you know that Chesapeake Public Schools has an app? Stay up to date on news, events and reminders for the district and your school. Visit the App Store or Google Play Store to download the app today. It's everything Chesapeake in your pocket. Be a part of the Chesapeake Public Schools family. We are hiring teachers, bus drivers, school nutrition workers, nurses and more.

Richard Babb:

Visit cpschoolscom or call 757-547-0001 to join our team. So, as we said at the beginning, the kids are back in attendance at school, and attendance actually is an important word. Right now, september is Attendance Awareness Month, and it is important, very important, for kids to be in school, just like it's important for people to be at work, and so the person who's in charge of attendance for the entire Chesapeake School district is with us today.

Matt Graham:

Welcome to the show. Do you mind telling our listeners a little bit about yourself and what you do?

Yvette Lagares:

Mr Richie Bab.

Matt Graham:

Yes.

Yvette Lagares:

Mr Matt Graham. I'm Yvette Lagaris. I work in the Office of Student Enrollment and Attendance for Chesapeake Public Schools. We help families get enrolled and make sure that they attend. We are there to help them have a successful year.

Matt Graham:

Okay very good Nice. Now, can you tell us how you ended up in the position that you have now? Word on the street. You used to work in the courts, Did you?

Richard Babb:

work in a court? Did you work for the police or something before?

Yvette Lagares:

I never was a police officer.

Yvette Lagares:

I never was in that side of things. So I moved down to the Hampton Roads area in 2002. My sister and my brother-in-law were like, hey, come on down here, that's a great place to be, and they were both military. So I moved down here and six months later my sister gets deployed. I'm like really. But when my first job here was actually at the Norfolk Sheriff's Office, I was what they call a classification specialist. So the idea is, when people get detained or incarcerated, you want to make sure that the housing situation is accurate. You don't want to have someone that might have only two or three days because they misdefined or something, in the same cell block as someone who's accused of something maybe a little bit more violent.

Richard Babb:

Got you.

Yvette Lagares:

So and then there's sometimes that inmates need some social services, like a call home to mom or an attorney or something along those lines, Maybe a phone call to a family member to make sure that when they get released there's someone there to pick them up.

Richard Babb:

Things along those lines. Wow, okay, I didn't know there was such a job, was that? No? No, I did not.

Yvette Lagares:

So actually all the Hampton Roads area jails have that kind of position, even at the state level. And then from the Sheriff's Office I went over to the Chesapeake Magistrates Office. I was a magistrate in the city for about six years. From there I went over to the courthouse and I was an intake officer. So that's a juvenile equivalent of a magistrate, I would say. And then from there I made the leap to Chesapeake Public Schools and I've been with the school division since 2014. I started off in the student conduct office. I actually have a degree in history and a master's in education, so I took all my experience in the working world and my education and it came into play with student conduct and supports. And then I made the transition over to student enrollment because I wanted to do truancy court I was familiar with the court and the people and the processes and attendance is my jam, so I figured hey, this would be great.

Matt Graham:

Well, it seems like you are the perfect fit.

Richard Babb:

Yeah, so how many days a week, or how many days in a month, do you end up having to go to court?

Yvette Lagares:

Well, our truancy program has expanded a lot, unfortunately, but there is a need for it, and I first got this position we would go every Monday, and it is now so up to four times a month. Now, five years later, the court has recognized the need that we have and we've expanded from initially four days per month to the possibility of up to 16 days per month.

Kiera Whiteman:

Whoa.

Yvette Lagares:

So we have four judges and we have a schedule. I know which courtroom I would be in on Monday if I have a docket each on Tuesday. I know the judge, which courtroom, et cetera. Essentially, when we take a family to Turin C court, it is a last resort. We are not doing it to be punitive, but we're hoping to use it as a springboard for other services. And sometimes it's not even in action against a parent. It might be a juvenile, a student that has decided that he or she is not gonna be going to school anymore, and it's the parent reaching out to us saying hey, I need help. I've tried X, y and Z. I need to get the court involved. And we're there.

Richard Babb:

Yeah, I have a thousand questions. I'm not gonna ask all of them.

Kiera Whiteman:

I'm not gonna ask 999 of them, I know.

Richard Babb:

I know you are. So what's the most common problem? What causes Turin C? I'm sure there's a whole range of things.

Yvette Lagares:

Yeah, where do I begin? So we have some families where it's just a pattern. I didn't graduate from high school, I didn't see the necessity and I've passed that along to my kid. There's sometimes it's a matter of need. Hey, I may have lost my job and my 16, 17 year old son or daughter is supplementing our income and we need to work. Because what do you choose? Do you choose going to school over paying the rent?

Yvette Lagares:

So sometimes it's family needs, sometimes it's just barriers to attendance, such as maybe where you live, it's difficult to get access to the things that you need for school. It can be a lot of different things. But right now, unfortunately, I can say we are seeing more and more students that have school aversion because of mental health needs, and I respect you If you tell me that you are just suffering from depression and anxiety. I respect you for saying that to me because that's a big step right there. But now that I know, let's see if I can get you the help that you need. And mom, dad, it's not easy, it's not easy as a parent.

Yvette Lagares:

When you hear that your kid has anxiety or depression, what do you do? I mean, I'm looking at you both. Am I the youngest one in this room? I don't know.

Richard Babb:

Yes, maybe, I don't know. You're definitely younger than me. Well, okay.

Yvette Lagares:

As an 80s baby, we were out until the street lights were on and all this stuff, but we were latchkey kids. We didn't. I didn't say to my mom, hey, I'm feeling anxious, hey, I'm feeling depressed. So now myself, as a mother, if my child were to come to me and say something like that, I don't have a frame of reference. And, as a parent, not having a frame of reference, and you see that your child needs something, it's hard.

Richard Babb:

Yeah.

Yvette Lagares:

So again, we're not using this as a punitive measure, we're using it as a springboard.

Matt Graham:

Yeah, okay, because sometimes that's good to know. Yeah, I think that's a great thing.

Richard Babb:

So let's look at it from the other side. What is attendance so important? I mean, it seems like a stupid question, all right.

Yvette Lagares:

I'm on my soap pops people.

Richard Babb:

All right, so that's what you're here for.

Yvette Lagares:

Yeah, attendance is important Because, first of all, we're here to give a great example to kids about showing up, whether it's showing up to school or showing up in life, showing up for their family, showing up for their jobs. So if we start showing that model now, we're raising young adults that understand that you gotta be there, right, you know that whole, you gotta be in it to win it, kind of thing. The other thing there is a high correlation between student success and attendance. If little Billy or little Yvette is having a difficulty reading, well, let's take a step back. Are they there every day? Are they getting the assistance that they need? Are they there on time? These things they correlate and we don't think about it, but they do.

Yvette Lagares:

And attendance is actually a good predictor as to whether or not a child's gonna graduate. But our teachers are some of the best in the state and in order for them our children, our students, to fully grasp the lesson, they have to be there, they have to be present. And then we talk about the social, emotional side of it. You're connecting with your peers, you're interacting with adults, you're learning valuable things when you're in school. It's not just the reading, writing, arithmetic. So attendance is important. You know your kid can't be that star soccer player for that budding. I mean I couldn't think of an answer.

Matt Graham:

I'm sorry, that's good, that's good, and that's alliteration there too. Oh, thank you.

Yvette Lagares:

Your child can't learn to be these things if he or she is not showing up for those lessons Right. So if we're putting value on, you know, the soccer practices and the football practices and the bassoon practices, you know we need to put value on education. And I'm not saying because every child is going to go off to college. You know he or she may choose the trade route, they may find another path in life, they might go into the military. But even those paths you need to show up, you need to be present, right. So we're training our young to be there for us and to give them the skillset that they need to be successful. Attendance does matter and our goal is to have your child graduate and be prepared for life.

Richard Babb:

Yeah, this is a push for September was a push in September. What are some of the things that we do to encourage attendance?

Yvette Lagares:

Chesapeake Public Schools. Overall, we're an inviting place Again. We have some of the best teachers. We do everything and anything that we can to make our school a welcoming environment and even when there's barriers, we have school counselors, we have school social workers. We have a lot of support staff to make this the best possible transition for you.

Yvette Lagares:

We ask that you, as parents, that you talk to your kids about school, about the need to be here, that you set a good example, whether it's going to bed early so that you can get up nice and early and have that breakfast, or go to school and have breakfast, because we provide that as well. We encourage you to talk to your kids about why it matters to be in school. We encourage you to do things such as reading to them in the evening so that they can. They can get a little grasp of what's going on, and when they see that you're invested in their schooling, they become invested, because you can't show me a child that isn't eager and willing to show mom and dad look what I've done, look what I can do. When they see you there, they're there.

Matt Graham:

Yeah, yeah. What are the things that families should do? If a student has to miss Like they're sick, what do you do?

Yvette Lagares:

We encourage you to have communication with the school.

Yvette Lagares:

We understand situations come up, kids get sick, that's what they do but we need to know when your child is not in school and we don't know, we worry.

Yvette Lagares:

So if you have a parent view account and you should have a parent view account, and that would be the first thing that I encourage families to do is to make sure that their parent view account is active, make sure that they're checking in, because we send notifications via parent view. But you, as a parent, if you wake up in the morning and you see that your little one has a fever and you know that they're not going to school that day, you can submit a note to the school that morning via your parent view and that lets the school know. If not, you can communicate with the teacher or the attendance clerk at the school. If there's something else going on, we ask that you let us know because we can support you in that matter. Is your child feeling anxious because they're having a hard time reading? Are they feeling anxious because the social environment? Talk to us. Maybe we can put supports in place, but the number one thing I would say is to have a parent view account and to communicate with your teacher.

Yvette Lagares:

And sometimes you know, life happens. Let's say, I get that Disney World trip and hey, you know half of it's already paid for or whatnot. I understand that you're making a decision as a family to take that vacation. Those are precious memories. But we do ask that you be conscious of the fact that there's 180 days in the school year your child might be able to make up that work that he or she missed, but it's not a replacement for that missed instruction. So, yes, you made that decision as a family and I respect that.

Yvette Lagares:

I'm a mom too, but just be cognizant of the rest of the year. Are you going to now try and take another trip? And you know those absences add up. Plus, you never know when your child's going to get sick. So when you're planning these vacations, try and plan it during school breaks, the natural breaks that we have. I have a this hurts me to say I have a freshman. Even with a freshman, I don't know when he's going to get sick. No-transcript. I know that I need to have a game plan for when he is. And at the high school level it really matters when your child misses school, because seat time is a factor in your child passing. Your child can be Einstein pass every quiz, every test, turn it all his homework. But if he or she doesn't have the seat time and that's a state requirement then he or she may fail on attendance alone.

Matt Graham:

Right, can you tell us a little bit more about the seat time?

Yvette Lagares:

There's 180 days in the school year and at the high school level we have block scheduling. That block scheduling is calculated down to the minute to make sure you get the required amount of hours in that classroom. So when you have block scheduling, the magic number for you to remember is nine. At nine days, excused or unexcused, if your child's passing, they're passing, but once you hit 10, that's an issue of seat time. So if I got the flu and I mean it hit me really bad you guys, I was out for two weeks.

Yvette Lagares:

I was passing this class and I was still doing my work. But because I've missed 10 days, I've missed the amount of seat time required of me. Now, at the end of the semester, we have an attendance waiver process and I can submit my documentation, my parent can submit my documentation as to why, literally, that missed the required seat time. The school looks at it on a case-by-case basis. They may be able to grant you a waiver on the seat time. However, let's say I'm gone two weeks because I went on vacation, or hey, I'm a frequent skipper and my parents don't know.

Yvette Lagares:

Or let's say, I just forgot the reasons. I knew it was something valid, but I forgot the reasons and I never turned anything in. So now we don't have a reason. That event missed 10 days or more of that particular class. So now, even though I got an A in everything and even though I worked diligently to catch back up, I'm gonna fail on attendance. And not only that attendance counts for our accreditation. Chesapeake Public Schools has great schools. We meet benchmarks, our kids are passing SOLs. We are accredited by the state. But people need to realize that one of the factors for accreditation is your student attendance.

Yvette Lagares:

The state looks at what they call the chronic absenteeism rate. So a chronic absenteeism rate is 10% of the school year, so 18 days. The state wants to know whether or not we're coming to school. They don't care about the reason that your child's missing school, whether it was excused or unexcused. They wanna know what our chronic absenteeism rate. So go back to that Einstein example, passing all the classes, the whole school full of Einstein's. But if those children are chronically absent, it's going to affect the accreditation of the school. We work hard for our kids, you work hard for your students, your kids, and it would be a shame for the quality of Chesapeake Public Schools to be tarnished because of chronic absenteeism.

Matt Graham:

And it's good to know that Chesapeake Public Schools provides resources in regards to this.

Yvette Lagares:

Yeah, I mean, we understand things happen in life with our kids. Hey, she was really bad off. I had to take off from work because I couldn't. She needed someone by her side. You pivot, you make it happen, but we need you to be in communication with us, Gotcha.

Matt Graham:

So the Virginia Department of Education has recently launched an attendance campaign with the hashtag attendance matters VA.

Yvette Lagares:

The attendance has been an issue for the state. It's been an issue prior to COVID and now post COVID. It is bad. It is bad in the state. It is bad in the United States. There isn't a school division across America that is not being negatively impacted by their attendance numbers. So, yes, attendance matters. Va is a push from the BDOE and we're all on board. We want your kids here. We want them to be successful. We care for them.

Richard Babb:

That's why we're here Right, exactly Right. Thanks for joining us. I enjoyed the conversation immensely, right.

Yvette Lagares:

It was awesome, richie Bab. It's always a pleasure, always a pleasure.

Richard Babb:

Thank you very much.

Matt Graham:

And Graham, you too, no thanks, I remember. Hashtag attendance matters.

Richard Babb:

VA.

Matt Graham:

That's right, right on, all right, all right.

Richard Babb:

Thanks for listening to this episode of Amplified the Chesapeake Public Schools podcast. You can share your thoughts by visiting cpschoolscom slash amplified. Don't forget to follow us on Spotify, apple podcast, google podcast, amazon music or wherever you get your podcast.

People on this episode

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Dr. Chris Vail

Co-host
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Mr. Matt Graham

Co-host