We’ve all been there, the chirp of the minute bell rings, the students filter into their class, and there you are standing at the foot of a staircase; you now have to battle to get to your next class. You will be late.

Attendance is a problem all schools try to solve. Schaumburg High School is looking to cut down on tardies and truancies down through the Trudy [short for truancy and tardy]”competition. 

“Class attendance is critical because if you’re not in the classroom, you’re not learning,” Mr. Little declared. “We have to clean up tardies and truancies. Being in the classroom is a critical part of your education.”

This semester, the Saxons Solutions Team, which is made of faculty, staff, and administrators, wanted to come up with a program that would reduce the number of students not in class.  They determined the best way to encourage students to get to class was to set up attendance as a competition.  

“The idea of the competition is to have fun and improve attendance in a competitive way, Principal Little said. “Teenagers are competitive and if we can harness that, we’re hoping that students will find their way to class.”

Fifty teachers and 177 class periods have entered the pilot competition. Set up to have classes compete against one another in a friendly manner, the competition will take a different form each month.

“The competition has created a great dialogue about the importance of being in class and on time, Assistant Principal Mr. Matarazzo stated. “Thus far, the competitions have created positive conversation between staff and students and data reflects that more class periods are TRUDY-free each week for a total of 194 TRUDY-free classes in February.”

March will be set up like NCAA March Madness with brackets posted around the school.  Class will advance based on their attendance.  Winners will be announced at the end of each competition.

In April, there will be a Survivor style contest to see which class can hold out the longest without a Trudy. With this type of format, the stakes are higher with each consecutive month in order to reduce Trudies as much as possible.

The twenty five winners of last week’s event were placed into a drawing in which one class period was drawn out a class prize. Even though the big prize is won by lottery, there are smaller prizes that will be gifted to the other classes that participated and that are exclusive members to the perfect club.

The Trudy competition is another initiative focused on making Schaumburg students life long learners and preparing them for the realities of the real world.

“Research suggests that successful people are all punctual and understand the importance of being on time, meeting deadlines, and understanding the view of time from the perspectives of others,” Ms. Gbur stated.

This program also includes the implementation of staff rovers, or teachers and staff members encouraging students to move with purpose towards their destination. Teacher are also making a greater effort to be a presence in the hallways by being outside their classrooms during passing periods.

Check out the competition using #attendtodayachievetomorrow.

The question is will you rise to the Trudy challenge and build a good habit of punctuality?