VIDALIA — Better and more prompt attendance, improved test scores and greater parental involvement were all factors Concordia Parish school administrators said would positively affect their school performance scores in the coming year.

The school principals gave their assessments at an informational meeting of the Concordia Parish School Board Thursday.

Ferriday Lower Elementary Principal Sheila Alwood said the school has simplified their record keeping to make it easier to notice student absences and patterns in absences. When a teacher notices a pattern or if a student misses a certain number of days, they will notify the parents.

“The teacher can look in her record book and see if the student misses Mondays all the time,” Alwood said.

Vidalia Upper Elementary Principal Darla Johnston said many parents do not realize that early checkouts and late check-ins affect their child’s attendance record and the school’s performance score.

“They don’t think very much about a tardy or a checkout because they don’t think that’s important,” Johnston said.

Cracking down on early checkouts, may mean requiring a child come to school the next day with a doctor’s excuse, she said.

“Most parents are understanding when it is explained to them,” Johnston said.

Both Ferriday and Vidalia junior high school principals James Davis and Whest Shirley said they would employ in-school suspension more this year to keep students in the schools even when they are in trouble.

While some principals talked about additional academic or extracurricular programs offered at the schools, such as college credit courses at Vidalia High School or mentoring programs after school at Ferriday Upper Elementary, all of the administrators spoke about their plans to enhance the math and reading scores on state tests for their school and what programs they planned to use to do so.

Vidalia High Principal Rick Brown said that meant finding ways to incorporate literacy skills across the curriculum, and both Shirley and Monterey High Principal Neeva Sibley said that meant offering mock testing to allow students to become more familiar with the testing format.

“Hopefully, by putting them in these situations they will do well come April,” Shirley said.

The administrators at the parish elementary schools said they were having math-based contests at their schools to motivate the students to participate and learn basic math skills.

Ridgecrest Elementary Principal Nancy Anders said that the school would examine the individual students’ test scores and work with them in their weaker areas.

“The students need prescriptive intervention,” Anders said. “We need to look at every child’s scores and see what they need.”

But for a student to be successful, they need for their parents to be involved.

“One thing we do is have parents to volunteer to be in the classroom so they feel comfortable in the school, so they don’t feel like they’re always up there for something bad,” FUE Principal Cindy Smith said.

Junior high students may not want their parents to come anywhere near the school, but that shouldn’t deter them, and VJHS will have a parents’ night in the fall and mid-year, Shirley said.

“The more we get parents involved, the better off we are going to be,” he said.