Trying to add a payment method? You can do this on the 
QuickTake:
They are the record keepers, the culture setters, the guards and the glue of the school.
Editor’s note: This story is the second in a series about school attendance, told from the classrooms and hallways of Meadow View School in Bethel School District.
The morning in Meadow View School’s front office started quietly.
Jahon Munroe, one of three office coordinators, arrived Oct. 27 before sunrise to sort out the day’s first tangles: teacher absences and substitute placements. He brought his umbrella to protect his hair from the rain and decided to set his strip of LED lights at his desk to orange. Autumn was in full swing and it was a good hair day.
At 7:45, rain still fell outside. Nilma Ram, another office coordinator, used the last bits of quiet to power through some work. She had been out the day before and was digging out from under a mountain of receipts.
By 8:15 a.m., everyone was in their places, including their third team member, Kristin Meador, and suddenly, everyone needed something from the front desk.
A staff member was looking for a watch; a mom was dropping off her child’s cookie sale form; the mobile dental clinic team was checking in; a substitute teacher needed directions; a counselor was asking about the rainy day recess schedule; a worried grandmother wanted to know whether volunteering might help her grandchild who was having trouble in school. A stressed mother and tearful daughter wanted to talk to the school counselor.
As front office staffers, Munroe, Ram and Meador are at the center of everything at Meadow View. They are the air traffic controllers, the customer service reps and the record keepers of the K-8 school on the western edge of Bethel School District. They witness all the comings and goings, see all the struggles and triumphs, and record all the tardies and absences.
Like many schools across Oregon, Meadow View’s chronic absenteeism skyrocketed after the pandemic hit and has been slow to improve.
As district and state officials ramp up attendance expectations, front office staff like Munroe, Ram and Meador have a front seat to the difficult realities facing staff and students. Through hundreds of little moments, they also play a large role in the effort to bring kids back.
The welcome committee
The day’s first bell rang at 8:25 a.m. Then came the steady stream of tardy students. Some were late by minutes, others by an hour. It was “Dress like an 80-year-old Day,” resulting in several students sporting fake beards, drawn-on wrinkles and tiny canes.
Munroe and Meador wrote the youthful octogenarians’ hall passes and tore off the yellow carbon copies, saving them to enter into the computer later. “Welcome Back” was printed at the top of the tardy slips, a recent redesign to make them more positive, Munroe said.
One girl showed Munroe her set of pickle erasers as she took her pass.
“They came in pickle slime,” she said, grinning.
Many of the same students are late every day, Munroe said. One or two students sometimes arrive in the early afternoon. He hypothesizes that some students don’t have much adult supervision at home and can only guess why. It’s not his job to know the whys.
As a stepparent and former babysitter for his nieces and nephews growing up, he empathizes with caregivers. But he also feels protective of the students he sees every day.
“I’m seeing it firsthand — what it’s like to be a kid,” Munroe said. “And I just try to remember all the experiences I had and try to make it better for them.”
Ram, also a parent, said the first thing she asks some tardy students is if they’ve eaten that morning. She doesn’t know all the details of students’ home lives; all she can do is be a caring adult when they get to school.
A school culture that makes students and guardians feel safe, included and cared for has always been one of the leading predictors of student attendance, according to education research. Post-pandemic studies show it matters now more than ever. A 2026 University of Chicago study showed school climate was “even more strongly related to absenteeism after the pandemic than before.”
Between meetings, Principal Heather Hiatt checked in with her front office staff, whom she sees as the school’s tone setters.
Munroe is kind and judgment-free, she said. Meador is a master of the school’s resources, once heading a GoFundMe to make sure the school nurse had enough socks and underwear to stock the school’s supply. And Ram — she knows everything, Hiatt said, and is an important information filter for Hiatt, knowing exactly what she needs to know and doesn’t need to know.
“They are the first faces people see,” Hiatt said. ”How they welcome people, how they listen, how they help problem-solve is so important for that school-family connection.”
Keepers of the gates – and attendance
The activity slowed around 9:10 a.m.
Munroe, Meador and Ram entered the yellow carbon-copy tardy slips into the attendance system while fielding calls from teachers. They took turns buzzing in the slow trickle of parents and students.
Munroe’s desk sits front and center in Meadow View’s office. Among his three bottles of hand sanitizer, rose-scented hand lotion and matching baby blue keyboard and mouse are the master security buttons of the school.
A plastic lid covers one big red knob labeled “Lockdown,” a black knob labeled “Secure” and a green button that resets the system. The controls lock various doors and alert different people in an emergency. Munroe also has a hidden switch under his desk to call the police.
The recent Bend school shooting was “sad and hard and very close,” Munroe said, remembering the staff emails flying Oct. 15, the day a 16-year-old opened fire on staff and students at Silver Rail Elementary.
“It’s always in the back of my mind just because this is our life, this is where we work,” Munroe said.
But Munroe had little time to fixate on the nightmare he could face any day. His attention turned back to attendance.
All three office coordinators help record attendance throughout the day, but Munroe heads the charge. He reported 23 unexcused absences and 100 “absence codes,” ranging from tardy to leaving for an appointment to in-school suspension.
Meador tracks attendance data over time and sends letters home when attendance is poor. She runs attendance reports every two weeks for Hiatt and elementary school counselor Hannah Brown to study and discuss. But she runs the reports every Monday to stay on top of things herself. Under Oregon law, if a student is absent for 10 days in a row, they are automatically unenrolled.
“I believe in more knowledge than less,” she said. ”I don’t want any kid to be left behind or feel like they’re not being cared for.”
Because Meadow View is a K-8 school, Meador also tracks attendance by period for middle schoolers. If middle school students are tardy to class three times in a week, they get detention, Meador said. But there are incentives, too.
Taycee Lipkin, a middle school behavior specialist, suited up in a sparkly white tutu, a light-up pink plastic tiara and silver sequined wand Tuesday. The “Attendance Fairy” made rounds in the middle school wing during the second period to distribute candy to three full classes with 100% or nearly 100% attendance. Students don’t know when the Attendance Fairy is coming, a supposed motivator to always be in class, just in case.
Making time to chat
The office coordinators each have regulars who go straight to their desks for tardy slips or just to chat. Noah, a second-grader, is one of Meador’s.
“Hi, Noah,” Meador said, greeting the boy as he sidled up.
He examined the small kingdom of LEGOs and knickknacks on her desk before taking his tardy slip. Meador rotates through items such as tiny terrariums, large orchids and a very round 3D-printed chicken to keep her display fresh. The kids aren’t supposed to touch, but many do. She recently had a dragonfly casualty from a dysregulated student.
Next came a set of sisters, Eleanor and Gwen, apologizing to Meador for being late. They were at a parakeet funeral that morning, they explained. Now they have only one parakeet.
“Well, I’m sorry to hear about your parakeet,” Meador said, reminding the girls that the school counselor was available to talk if they wanted.
Meador, Munroe, and Ram moved seamlessly between discussing pickle erasers and parakeets and comforting concerned parents. Ram, the office sports enthusiast, talked football and NASCAR with anyone who shared her passions.
As stragglers stopped arriving, parents began picking up students for orthodontist and doctor appointments. A middle school boy meandered over to see if the office staff had snacks. A teacher dropped off a crying kindergartener to talk with the principal. Meador handed the boy a pack of granola and guided the kindergartener to the back to wait.
Hiatt soon emerged and asked about the sniffling kindergartener waiting by her door. As an administrator, she leans on her front office staff to do much of the connection-building she sees as essential to getting kids to school, she said.
Through snacks given when hunger hits, fresh sets of clothes offered after accidents, and warm welcomes after tardiness, Hiatt sees them dissolve embarrassment and shame on a daily basis.
“It’s little things like that that are all so important to creating the culture that I see is the most important piece of school,” she said. “That sense of belonging.”
