By Anna Etra

Absence records are now available online through HWonline, Head of Attendance Gabriel Preciado announced in a school-wide e-mail. Students can access the student portal from home and from school. If accessing the site from home, students must log in with their school user name and password. Once signed in, the unresolved absence list is available through the “resources for students” tab.

“The old system, the use of the attendance board, was updated whenever [dean coordinator Camille] Da Santos printed it out. Now, the absences are updated the second I enter it in my computer,” Preciado said.

The attendance board in Chalmers, will remain intact through the end of this year. Eventually, the system will be only online.

Preciado has been encouraging such a program for a few years, and his efforts finally paid off.

“I hope that students will check this more frequently. I think the option of having the attendance board will reduce the amount of unnecessary detentions. I think it makes it easier for them to not have to look at such a big list,” Preciado said. The new system was designed by senior software engineer Alan Homan, who is also in charge of Didax.

Although students will still need to go see Preciado to resolve absences, the increased accessibility provides another chance to learn about unresolved absences.