Each week during the school year a representative from the Carbon County School District comes in to speak with Castle Country Radio about the latest news and happenings taking place within the district. Superintendent Mika Salas stopped by Castle Country Radio to close out the 2023 year by discussing attendance program, mid-year testing and snow day policy.

Attendance is very important when it comes to school and it was quite a chore to get students back into the swing of things after the COVID years. “What we’ve tried to do now is really put in place our own systems within our own school to really incentivize kids to be at school, and it’s working. I mean, we’re getting kids in school, we’re getting them to attend better, and it’s paid off.  We had 64 percent of students at Carbon High School on the honor roll for first quarter. Which not just a little bit successful but on the honor roll, like extremely successful, and it’s because they are in school and we just can’t teach kids who aren’t there, it’s just difficult,” stated Superintendent Salas. When kids aren’t in school it’s not just their academics that they fall behind on, they also miss out of the social aspect of school too.

Students have finished up their mid-year testing and scores are trickling in. “You know test scores are coming in very favorable. We’ve really focused on some intervention work, specifically targeting our essential skills and making sure students have what they need to be successful. Again, it’s paying off, that consistent effort over time is what pays off, and we’re seeing that. I really feel like, finally, in this, I guess what the new normal is, but normal again,” said Superintendent Salas. The next time students will be testing is in April/May for end of year testing.

There is going to be a new snow day policy that the district is going to follow this year. “Even with our heavy snow fall last year, calling a snow day is very disruptive for everyone. A snow day would mean we don’t go to school at all and that’s very hard for our parents that have to then find child care, it just really difficult. So what we’re going to do is propose that with rare exception, hopefully no exception, we will do a late start. So I’ll send exact information out, we’ll post it on social media, but basically that means that we would be two hours later than normal,” explained Superintendent Salas. Parents should be aware that the district will send out automated communication by 6:00 am on snow days.

To learn more about Carbon School District visit their website at https://www.carbonschools.org/