LAMS Dean of Students Colby Holland
LAPS News:
According to the New Mexico Public Education Department, across the country, more than 8 million students are missing so many days of school that they are academically at risk. Chronic absence — missing 10 percent or more of school days for any reason—can translate into third-graders unable to master reading, sixth-graders failing subjects, and ninth-graders dropping out of high school.
The state reported a 39.22% chronic absenteeism rate for the 2022-2023 school year. For Los Alamos Public Schools, the rate is 18.85%. Research shows that attendance is an important factor in student achievement. While LAPS provides supports for student success, the middle and high school added an extra resource for students in the role of the Dean of Students.
While new to the role this year, both Colby Holland, Dean of Students at Los Alamos Middle School, and Eric Ziegler, the LAHS Dean of Students, have several years of experience in education.
Holland was a special education and regular classroom teacher for 25 years and knew that he had grown as much as he could in that role. Having taught the spectrum of special education to teaching regular and AP classes, Holland has always striven to attain career challenges.
“But even though I was done with teaching, I wasn’t done working with students,” he said. After a two-year stint as an LAHS counselor, he was drawn to the Dean of Students role as an opportunity to work with students in a problem-solving capacity. “In this role, I am able to foster better school attendance and positive student behaviors, which in turn helps students find more academic success.”
LAHS Dean of Students Eric Ziegler
Ziegler was an Assistant Principal at a high school in Texas and taught math for seven years before moving to New Mexico. He took on the position of Dean because he “wanted the opportunity to work more one-on-one with students.”
“One of my goals for getting into administration has been to become a mentor to students,” he explained. “I believe this position may allow me more opportunity to build good relationships with kids, especially those that might need a little more direction or motivation.”
Both are working on strategies to improve student attendance and support the district’s 100% attendance goal. “As the Dean of Students, I monitor daily attendance and identify students who are chronically absent,” Holland said. “Once these students are identified, I use a multi-tiered system of supports to increase their attendance.” In addition to promoting positive school attendance, he also works with students individually to reinforce productive and respectful student relationships with their peers, teachers, and other LAMS staff members.
Holland noted, “LAMS teachers provide engaging lessons and activities as the cornerstone of their curriculum, but an important key to academic success is attendance. The types of learning opportunities that teachers provide to their classroom learning communities cannot be easily recreated at home, and when students do try to complete work at home that they missed in class without the support of an instructor, they are more likely to struggle or give up. To get the most out of the education that LAPS has to offer, students really do need to consistently attend class with their peers and a dedicated teacher.”
“Right now, I am focused on attendance, making sure students are attending school, getting to class on time, and checking in with them about grades and other things,” Ziegler said. “I am also working with students who may have had some persistent disciplinary issues, trying to find ways to get them back on track. I want to be more in the support role than the disciplinarian role.”
“I am monitoring attendance daily, and will speak to students as much as possible about attendance issues,” Ziegler continued. “I also reach out to parents to see how I can help. Attendance is so vital to a student’s success. Missing even one day can cause a student to fall behind, and if attendance is a consistent issue, things can start to snowball quickly.
“In my career, I have seen many students get overwhelmed by the workload after falling behind. Some of them simply give up, because they feel so discouraged. We want every student to feel as if they can be successful in each and every class, so attending these classes is very important,” he added.
Holland also promotes positive attendance, and has been teaching attendance awareness lessons to all 7th and 8th graders at the school year. He also makes sure that students, parents, faculty members, and community members know that “we care about student attendance by posting the LAMS student attendance percentage from the previous school day at the school’s entrance.”
“Students suffer both academically and socially/emotionally when they do not attend school regularly,” he said. “Chronic attendance also negatively impacts the student’s teachers as well because they have to slow down the pace of instruction, re-teach lessons, and most importantly, miss out on opportunities to build relationships with their students.”
In promoting social and emotional well-being for students, Holland said that his focus is helping LAMS to continue being the best place for young teens to feel safe and welcomed. “When students attend school regularly, they have a better chance at establishing healthy relationships with their peers and school personnel,” he explained. “When students feel as though they are accepted by their peers and supported by instructors and administrators, they can really focus on learning in their classes and pursuing their extra-curricular interests.”