New Plymouth Begins Saturday School To Cut Truancy Students Caught Without Passes Will Spend Weekend Inside A Classroom

With the hope of cutting down truancy, the New Plymouth School District will start Saturday classes for the first time.

The school board approved the pilot project at its meeting this week. Saturday sessions start immediately.

“With this program, we will attempt to teach accountability to the students and drastically cut down the number of students truant and wandering the halls,” said Arlo Decker, principal of New Plymouth High School, in a grant application.

The high school said last year it had 70 reported truancies, when a student is absent without the knowledge of parents or school officials. Decker said at any given time last year, up to 30 students could be found wandering the halls without proper passes.

This year, he said, only 5-10 students are in the halls each hour and most have passes.

Under the new plan, any student who is truant or found in the halls without a pass will be assigned three and a half hours at Saturday school.

Sessions will be held once a month starting at 8:30 a.m. Students will be asked to bring homework, or homework will be provided to them.

The Saturday school supervisor will be James Nelson, a teacher’s aide in the district.

Decker said he has been discussing Saturday school with the school board for several years, and has talked with other districts that use the same concept.

District Superintendent Ryan Kerby said it’s another attempt to cut down on truancies and teach students responsibility.