Members of the Mt. Pleasant school board were treated to a show on Monday evening, as the high school show choir performed one of their songs, “In My Life”. It will be a few more months until the show choir will trade the carpet of the library for the stage, as their competitive season waits until after Christmas. 
Student and Family Advocate, Martha Peterson, presented on chronic absenteeism and truancy. According to her, the problem that students are not going to school isn’t just an issue here in Southeast Iowa, but rather nationwide. According to a new law passed by the state of Iowa through senate file 2435, students are considered “chronically absent” if they miss 10% of the school days in a grading period. For Mt. Pleasant, that is one semester. If a student misses that amount, a certified letter is sent to the family and to the county attorney. At 15%, the family will meet with the district to see what can be done to ensure the trend stops. 20% is when a student is considered “truant”, which means their name goes to the county attorney, who decides on if truancy proceedings are necessary, which may lead to fines or jailtime.
According to the data, just shy of 30% of students nationwide missed 10% of a grading period in the 2021/2022 school year, with that number slightly dropping the following year. Peterson said that she doesn’t want students coming to school if they are sick, but it is a different story if they have the sniffles or a stomach ache.
The school board has a work session scheduled for October 28th, in which they will host three candidates running for the Iowa house. Tom ODonnell, Jeff Shipley, and Jeff Poulter will be in attendance that evening.
All three fundraisers were approved on Monday’s meeting. There will be an iJAG fundraiser next Monday at Pizza Ranch, a Fun Run on November 2nd for the National Honor Society, and the FFA will be partnering with the Rotary clubs in Mt. Pleasant to sell Christmas Wreaths.