As Virginia Alvarado, the former Administrative Assistant to the Dean of students, retired after the 2019 fall semester, Nora Birmingham, the Main Office Receptionist, has taken up the role of overseeing the attendance of students.

As a result, an email was sent out informing students and parents that there is a new attendance procedure for when students are going to be absent.

The previous procedure was to have parents call the Attendance Office before 9:00 a.m., stating their son’s name, grade, reason for his absence, their relationship to the student, and their phone number if the school has any questions. On top of doing all of this, students had to bring a signed note from their parents the day they returned to school.

The new implemented attendance procedure has two methods for parents to report a student’s absence. Parents can either send an email to [email protected] or leave a voicemail at 415-586- 8200 ext. 250, stating their son’s name, grade, and their contact information.

However, a signed parent note is still expected to be dropped off  to Birmingham the day they return to school as to eliminate the risk of students sending emails from their parent’s account.

This updated attendance policy was implemented to relieve the workload for Birmingham. On top of her other tasks as the receptionist of the main office, she now has to monitor students’ attendance. Juan Zumbado ’98, the Dean of Students, said, “It’s just to make it easier for Mrs. Birmingham.

It actually makes it a little more efficient, because when Mrs. Alvarado was here, she would listen to voicemails, but there would be some mornings where she would have to get through 15 to 40 voicemails to see who is missing. If the email comes in ‘Hey, my son is sick,’ to attendance, that is much easier to get through that log in sheet.”

Although the email informed students to bring a signed note the day they return from their absence, some students reported that they were not chased down if they did not bring one. For that reason, both students and parents enjoy this new attendance procedure as there is one less requirement to do.

Brandon Chan ’19 said, “I like this new policy because it is more convenient, because you do not have to worry about reminding yourself and your parents to bring in a note the next day. I think it is also convenient for the front desk as they do not have to immediately mark me absent.”

Zumbado said that is intentional. He said, “A lot of the time, I would just accept an email. I would print it, use it as the note, and put it in the student’s file.”