NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Boston Celtics gave gold to Colegrove Park Elementary School on Friday for scoring in the top 10 schools for attendance statewide. The school saw its chronic absenteeism numbers drop by 11 percent last year. 

 

Tim Connor, assistant director for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's west and central district, arrived with a gold basketball signed by the champion team to reward the students for their achievement.

 

"An award like this doesn't come easy. It takes a lot of work from all of you, the students, the parents, and especially Ms. Meehan and her wonderful staff, so a big round of applause," said Mayor Jennifer Macksey, after leading the assembly in the gym to chants of "Colegrove rocks!" "I am so proud of this school and the community that all of you have built. So everyone should be really excited about today, and this is an excellent way to start your school."

 

Superintendent Barbara Malkas asked last year's fifth-graders at Colegrove to join her at the front of the gym for a special applause. 

 

"When we track attendance of all the students in the whole district, these students have the highest attendance rate, the lowest chronic absenteeism rate in the entire district," Malkas said. "While all Colegrove students have been recognized as attendance all-stars, these students led the way in being attendance all-stars, so let's give them one more round of applause."

 

Colegrove switched this year to house Grades 3 to 6, so some of the younger students who helped earn the award are now at Brayton Elementary. However, all three elementary schools open last year saw improvement in attendance. 

 

Schools statewide have been working to reduce chronic absenteeism — the percentage of students missing 10 percent of the school year, or 18 days — which peaked during the pandemic. 

 

Connor said Colegrove was among those that reached a milestone in attendance last school year when the department looked through the data. 

 

"When we talk about being a top 10, we're talking out of 1,715 schools. Colegrove is in that top 10," he told the children. "It is such an honor, and that honor comes from the hard work of your parents, guardians. It comes from the hard work of the faculty and staff, your principals, your superintendent, your peers, your student counselors, everybody in this room is here to see you succeed.

 

"Success comes from hard work and you can't have success if you're not present."

 

DESE was looking for a way to recognize these schools and reached out to the Celtics. Each of the 10 schools on Friday received a signed golden ball and an engraved stand. Principal Amy Meehan said the ball will be stored in her office until a trophy case can be acquired. 

 

Assistant Superintendent Timothy Callahan laid down some math on the gathering: district's second grade had a 93.8 percent attendance, Grade 4 had 93.5 percent, Grade 5 had 93.2 percent and Grade 6 had 94.4.

 

The number of students who missed 18 or more days last year dropped across the district. Greylock dropped by 2.4 percent and Brayton by 9.7 percent. Colegrove had the highest drop at 11 percent. 

 

Callahan stressed to the youngsters that being present in school will pay off in the future. 

 

"If you miss two, three or four days in September, you're five times more likely to miss 18 or more days of the year. If you miss 18 or more days in a year at any grade, you're seven times more likely not to graduate from high school," he said. "If you graduate from high school and then graduate from college, you make in your life $1.5 million more than people who don't graduate from high school. That's how much being in school matters."

 

Connor, with help from third-graders Adyleena Charron and Justin Bailey, presented the golden Celtics basketball to Principal Amy Meehan. He told the children one basketball was great but even two would be better.

 

"So I'm hoping that I'll be here again next year, doing the same," he said. 

 

Meehan said the school last September had set a goal to improve attendance. 

 

"We know that being present in school every day is the first step to success, but we also know that life sometimes makes that hard to do," she said. "Think about those mornings when you didn't feel like being out of bed, but you made it to school anyways, or other times we had to encourage you to keep coming, to stay connected and be part of something bigger. Those small decisions day after day add up to something extraordinary to our amazing students, especially our fifth grade class from Colegrove last year, your determination, your willingness to keep pushing forward even on those tough days, has made this achievement possible. ...

 

"It's a reminder that just like in basketball, success comes from being part of the game, and you call our part of the game because you're here with us today. So let's keep showing up, let's keep working hard, let's keep striving for excellence."