Hillhouse Principal Billy: "We're better than last year." Hillhouse’s average attendance rate so far this year is 84 percent — a number the high school’s principal credits to, and hopes to improve on, by paying special attention to making sure ninth graders come to class.Hillhouse High School Principal Antoine Billy gave that update Monday evening during the latest biweekly Board of Education meeting, held at John S. Martinez School in Fair Haven.He described how the city’s second largest high school has identified 190 ninth graders most in need of wraparound services. The school has created this year a grade nine consisting of five staffers who work directly to support first years. Those students meet weekly with the team of administrators, educators, and a counselor — whom Billy referred to as the ​“first responders for grade 9 students.”He also spoke about how Hillhouse, like other New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) high schools, has established a summer bridge program for first years. And in September, the school arranged a goal setting conference with Hillhouse alums.“We’re not where we want to be, but we’re better than last year,” Billy said at Monday’s meeting.His presentation was one part of a broader check-in by district leaders on NHPS fight against chronic absenteeism, a term that refers to when students miss 10 percent or more of school days. On Monday, NHPS Chief of Youth, Family & Community Engagement Gemma Joseph-Lumpkin reported that, for the first few months of the school year, through October, the district’s chronic absenteeism rate was 24.9 percent. That’s down from 32 percent for the same time period last year, and from 49 percent for the same time period the year before. Since the Covid pandemic caused a spike in chronic absenteeism rates districtwide, Joseph-Lumpkin’s team has been tasked with getting that rate on a steady decline by doing thousands of home visits, hosting ​“attendance matters” challenges, and bringing in community partners to incentivize school attendance.Joseph-Lumpkin told the school board that 74 percent of families contacted by her team have said student absences were due to concerns with medical issues and physicals/immunization records.Click here to view the school-by-school, August-to-October chronic absenteeism data. And click here to view the full Monday presentation. Hillhouse Principal Billy, meanwhile, described in detail on Monday what chronic absenteeism-combatting efforts have looked liked at the city’s second largest high school so far this yearBilly, who has been at the helm of Hillhouse for the past ten months, emphasized that the work currently happening is done by the school’s staff on the daily. When he first arrived at Hillhouse in January, Billy spent time asking students how they feel being in the building. After collecting a series of ​“I feel …” statements from students, Billy learned students felt not welcome in Hillhouse’s school building. Some described it as feeling like a ​“jail;” others said it is a place people didn’t want them to be. Billy has since been on a mission to change student morale and the narrative of Hillhouse. So far this year, his students have focused their attendance efforts on first-year students, or ninth graders, who make up the Class of 2028. Through district data collection, Billy identified that 49 percent of the current ninth grade class were severely chronically absent last school year. A similar percentage of students were identified as in need of social and academic supports. Click here to see the full Hillhouse presentation.NHPS chronic absenteeism data... ... and Hillhouse-specific info for getting 9th graders to class.