Sabbrina Landers wears a gaudy Cleveland Browns necklace, part of the bling Brookfield school received for participating in the Browns’ Stay in the Game! Attendance Network.
Sabbrina Landers is writing the playbook on boosting attendance at Brookfield schools.
Hired in January as community liaison, Landers has been tasked with finding ways to get more kids to come to school more regularly. With her first full school year just begun, she is rolling out her plan.
In May, the district had an 87-percent attendance rate, which is 3 percent below the state benchmark, she said. Her plan to raise that above 90 percent is manyfold. She is reaching out to families of chronically absent students to try to learn why students are not coming to school, and offering ways to help. She’s already hooked up families with support groups, food pantries and counseling programs.
She has partnered with the Cleveland Browns Stay in the Game! Attendance Network. Chomps, the Browns’ mascot, welcomed students on the first day of school, and the team has provided key chains, lanyards, towels, pins, cinch bags and autographed footballs, which Landers is using as promotional material.
Landers will recognize teachers who support her efforts, hold occasional evening events for families, promote diversity and inclusion in a school that doesn’t have a lot of it, and go on home visits with School Resource Officer Gerald Hockey.
If there is student interest, she’d like to start peer groups according to grade and have high school students act as ambassadors for attendance.
“I’m hoping we can start to change the culture of why school’s important to your kids,” Landers told the Masury-Brookfield Women’s Club in May. “I’m not here to preach about the grades and all that stuff. If we can get you in the door and you can at least do 50 percent of the work, you at least get a C or a D. I’m not asking you to be a Rhodes Scholar. I just need you to get here so they can start preparing for their future selves.”
Sure, school teaches you reading, writing and arithmetic, but it also teaches responsibility, problem solving and teamwork.
“They’re gonna get everything they need in the world by coming to school,” Landers said.
Landers has started going to community events to introduce herself and enlist help with her efforts.
Brookfield Local School District Community Liaison Sabbrina Landers, second from left, accepts a proclamation from Brookfield trustees naming September Attendance Awareness Month. Trustees are, from left, Dan Suttles, Mark Ferrara and Shannon Devitz.
September is Attendance Awareness Month. Brookfield Township trustees have adopted a proclamation recognizing Attendance Awareness Month in the township.
Landers asks parents to challenge the belly aches and headaches students might complain of to determine if they are genuine health issues or excuses to skip school.
“We’re not saying to not let your child stay home if they’re sick,” she said. “We’re saying challenge some of those questionable illnesses. That way, they send them to school, they get the learning they need to get and, if they’re sick, they definitely will send them home.”
The plan is not a one-and-done thing, Landers said. She has learned that it can take two or three years to see any movement on attendance, so the school needs to keep the message visible. Landers has taken to the school’s Facebook page to try and spread it digitally.
“I don’t want people to feel this process is punitive,” she said. “It’s not about punitive. It’s about let’s see what we can do to help the kid get here. I’m not the teacher. I’m not the principal. I’m the community liaison. How can I help connect you with the things that you feel that you need?”
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