Potential honor roll students have until January 23 to serve all their detentions and clear any unexcused absences in order to satisfy the requirements of Jones’ new honor roll system.  In December, the Jones administration implemented the Honor Roll Recognition Program in hopes of encouraging students to not only earn superior grades, but also to decrease their tardiness, truancy, and disciplinary indiscretions.

“What sets apart an honor roll student from a student with just good grades is their responsibility,” Assistant Principal Therese Plunkett said.  As opposed to previous years in which students names were just posted at school, this honor roll system also recognizes students’ “academic achievement, attendance, and citizenship” with a letter of commendation. According to Plunkett. the Illinois State Board of Education has been looking for incentives for students to stop having unexcused absences for the past ten years.

“My grades are pretty good, but I have a lot of detentions.  It’d be stupid to not be on the honor roll just because I won’t serve them [detentions],” Max Segal-Wolk ‘16 said.  Even though he meets the grade requirement to make the honor roll, Segal-Wolk still has detentions.  He is considering serving all of his detentions before the deadline of January 23.  Segal-Wolk is not alone.

School Clerk Margaret Pinaglia noticed an increase in students serving detentions. As of January 15, approximately 55% of Jones students (821 students) had at least one detention that needed to be served.  Pinaglia said that detentions can be served in the morning or after school with Principal Dr. Joseph Powers or Art Teacher Karen Stolzenberg.  Students also have the option of arranging to serve detentions with any other teacher.

“If students deserve to be on the honor roll, they will serve their detentions. It’s pretty simple to serve detentions and in order to clear unexcused absences, you only need a note,” Plunkett said.