May 5, 2026- If attendance were a ship, these Mariners have certainly kept it steady.

Back in January, Assistant Principal Chris Blessing—along with the school’s Attendance Committee and First Mates—announced that the Attend Today, Achieve Tomorrow, Be All IN initiative (right) was hitting overdrive.

“We’ve made great strides the last two years,” Blessing said referring to attendance goals, “however, our numbers are dipping and winter is always difficult.”

The proposed solution? Within a two-month time period, “we will be doing everything in our power to encourage students to be here ready to learn daily,” Blessing declared. There would be individual, class, and grade-level prizes awarded for showing up. Homeroom challenges (below), interactive promotions, and more would be put into place.

Best yet, it would be the students themselves charged with managing the campaign. The dedicated student members of the Attendance Committee would be collecting and analyzing the data. Student leaders in each homeroom took the time and initiative to motivate their peers to get to school everyday as they wanted to win this competition. During this initiative, a goal was instituted that any student struggling to show up would hear from all corners - teachers, paras, counselors, fellow students, or admin—with a positive message and offer to help in any way possible.

It was anticipated that all of these efforts would, according to Blessing, “have a huge impact on our kids.”

They have.

Attendance remained steady at High School North throughout these months, and particularly in March, which often sees the biggest slump due to its length and lack of off days. No matter. March Madness bracket challenges, fun competitions, and personal conversations helped stave off that slump and kept students motivated and engaged.

A job well done by the Mariner leadership team and, especially, its dedicated Attendance Committee, which proved it is ALL IN.