• Lower academic achievement over time, lower scores on standardized assessments, and lower graduation rates. 
• Behavior problems - tardiness can lead to students feeling disconnected from school, leading to behavior problems and dropouts.
• Struggles with timeliness to jobs as adults, which leads to difficulty holding those jobs.

How can you help? 

• If your student is eligible for a bus, please make sure they ride it! The more student who ride the bus, the fewer cars we have in the drop-off line, and the better chance of getting everyone in
  class on time!
• If your student is a walker, please encourage them to walk - and walk with them! You can also arrange "walking school buses" with a group of other students in your area. 
• If weather is terrible and you must drive, please carpool with neighbors! We have seen more families carpooling lately, and it helps tremendously in getting students in the door on time! You
  are also helping our environment, and creating a sense of community with your neighbors. 
• Leaving even five minutes earlier every day would help us dramatically lower tardiness! 

Redmond Schoolpool is a great online resource to set up carpools or walking school buses with your neighbors. You can sign up at www.goredmond.com/schools. 

I have seen firsthand how much better students feel when they are on time. They feel pride in being here at the beginning of the day, and experience less anxiety over what they have missed. 

Our school goal is to decrease our percentage of tardy students from 2.3% (which is an average of 14-15 tardy students every day) to 1.5% or less (10 or fewer students) by April. We have already seen a high of 34 students tardy this week (eek!), and a low of 8, which was wonderful.

Thank you for your help!

Kirsten Gometz
Principal