From: Principal David. F. Dixon

To: Parents/Students/Teachers of South Iredell:

Date: November 9, 2006

This is an informational letter regarding our constant tardiness to class and our new district wide fighting policy. South Iredell has already accumulated over sixteen hundred tardies this year and we feel it is in the best interest of our students that they are in class, not in the hallways or parking lot. The administration has looked for a new policy with greater accountability for our students. The process was as follows: the administration took all surrounding area tardy policies and created a survey for the faculty to complete and received feedback and voted. We then took the results to our School Improvement Team, who voted and a new policy has been declared. It is as follows:

Individual Classroom (Recorded by Teacher)
1st - Teacher warning
2nd - Teacher warning
3rd - Teacher ASD (30 min) and parent contact

School Wide (must report to the front office and is now recorded by school)
4th - 1 hour ASD, parent contact, and one ninety minute makeup period
5th - two (2) one hour ASDs, parent contact, and parking or social pass revoked for 5 days
6th - one Saturday school, parent contact
7th - two Saturday schools, parent conference
8th - two days ISS, parent conference, two 90 minute makeup periods
9th - one day OSS, parking or social pass revoked 10 days
10th - two days OSS, three ninety minute makeup periods
11th - three days OSS, parking or social pass revoked for the remainder of the nine weeks or twenty days, whichever is greater.
12th - four days OSS, four 90 minute make-up periods, parent conference

We have established that a tardy is defined when a student is not in the designated classroom when the tardy bell sounds. Students are given five minutes in between class changes, which is ample time to get from one class to the next. Students are also reminded that they must pick up an admt slip in the cafeteria before school when they have missed previous days.

Our next policy is concerning fighting in school. Fighting is now an automatic 10 days OSS with a possible recommendation to Mulberry and possible criminal charges being brought toward the potential student. There is not going to be any exception to this rule!

I would like to encourage all parents to become as active as possible in our fight to better the educational experience and opporunities for your children. However, with the constant disruptions of tardiness and fighting, the educational day is disrupted. Please aid us by taking a proactive approach with your children and discussing these new policies with them. All policies will go into effect November 13, 2006 and therefore all students are granted amnesty from their number of tardies, but must complete any and all received discipline up through November 9, 2006.

Finally a special thanks to all those students who come to school and follow all policies. We, as educators, say thank you and hope that we can fulfill all your high school hopes and dreams while attending South.

Thank you,
David F. Dixon
Principal
South Iredell High School