School Board Members Vote Down Monthly Attendance Reports

Manassas City Public School Board members did not approve a resolution to require monthly attendance reports be made public in a 4-2 vote Tuesday.

The issue of attendance at MCPS was born from a meeting on Oct. 10, 2023, where Chevese Thomas, executive director of student services, gave a 36-slide presentation on attendance. Board Member Sara Brescia expressed concerns and presented this resolution to the Board in February, but the discussion was postponed to this meeting, the first of the 2024-2025 school year.

Board members throughout the meeting expressed hesitation with monthly attendance reports for many reasons, and Board Member Jill Spall said releasing this information to the public may be harmful because it could bring negative labels to schools.

“We live in pockets of low-income areas where many students miss school due to family responsibilities or health issues, and a public attendance report might highlight the high absenteeism rate without explaining these or other underlying causes,” Spall said. “As a result, one of our schools could be unfairly labeled as underperforming, leading to decreased community support and funding, which in turn makes it even harder for the school to address the root causes of the absenteeism.”

Spall said she believes transparency and accountability are important, but it needs to be balanced with the potential negative impacts on teachers and students.

Vice Chair Lisa Stevens questioned Brescia as to how these public, monthly reports would improve student attendance in practice. Brescia responded with an analogy to The Challenger disaster in January 1986, where the space shuttle broke apart 73 seconds into its flight and killed all seven crew members aboard.

“We all know now that the launch should never have happened, but how did it come to pass? How did a team of experts make such a catastrophic decision?” Brescia said. “As it turns out, there were people in the organization who knew it was dangerous to launch that day. Canceling the launch, that would have been very public, and it would have been very embarrassing, and so that crucial information stopped with [the engineers].”

Brescia continued, stating the importance of having these conversations about attendance in public because that’s part of the job of an elected official.

“Even though this is tough, it is necessary to have this public conversation and to not be afraid of that,” she said. “So I think we should take this opportunity to have the fierce conversation about attendance. Attendance is mission-critical data. It informs everything else we do.”

Newman was quick to step in and state his office does not withhold attendance data from the Board.

“I share with the Board every month during the department meeting where attendance is,” Newman said. “I don’t want anyone to think that the analogy is speaking to anyone in my office or myself holding any information back to save face. That attendance data is presented to this board every month with a comparison to where each school was [in] the previous year based on that month’s data.”

Stevens also took issue with Brescia’s analogy, emphasizing the efforts of the attendance team and central office staff to decrease absenteeism rates. She mentioned she was interested in quarterly reports and would discuss them.

“We do get updates periodically on the efforts our attendance teams are making to ensure that our kids are going to school and some of the challenges and burdens they experience,” Stevens said. “But I don’t want anybody to believe that they’re not doing the best they can every day.”

Board Member Christina Brooks said she was concerned with the burden the monthly reports would place on central office staff; she said their focus should be on reducing absenteeism rates rather than the reports.

Chair Suzanne Seaberg repeated comments she made about the topic back in February and reiterated her position that day-to-day operations are the responsibility of the superintendent, not the Board.

“We ultimately hold Dr. Newman responsible for day-to-day operations. This request goes beyond that, and it makes it public for others to comment and reflect on perhaps negatively,” Seaberg said. “Making this information public could cause ill will among students and staff in our schools and the community at-large.”

Before the Board took a vote, Brescia brought up Stevens’ willingness to discuss quarterly reports. Brescia said she was happy with quarterly reports because she wants to move away from the annual report model.

The motion ultimately failed, with Brescia and Board Member Robyn Williams voting in favor of the resolution and the rest of the Board — not including Board Member Carl Hollingsworth, who was not present — voting against it.

Diana Brown, a candidate for the School Board, said proposing a vote “solely for publishing absenteeism numbers” appeared to be a “superficial, politically motivated move.”

“This vote, though framed as a measure for transparency, is at best an ineffective proposal. If the board genuinely wishes to address absenteeism, it must adopt a more nuanced and supportive approach that goes beyond merely reporting numbers,” she said. “I urge the Board to consider proposals that focus on comprehensive and contextually informed interventions to truly make a difference.”

Maidy Whitesell, another School Board candidate, said she would’ve supported the resolution if she was on the current Board.

“For me, transparency is an essential aspect of good leadership. I believe that the public should know how our attendance is trending,” she said. “Information should not be hidden from us as parents and members of the community. The current annual report is not adequate to keep all stakeholders updated throughout the year on whether the strategies that the schools are implementing are effective.”

Javanese Hailey, a candidate for the Board, said she too would’ve voted in favor of the resolution.

“Our only two secondary schools, Metz and Osbourn, are not fully accredited by the state. For both of those schools, chronic absenteeism is a school quality indicator that contributes to this Accredited with Conditions status,” Hailey said. “Transparency and accountability are important, and monthly attendance reports would provide measures of progress.”