Following the assembly and check presentation, 50 third-grade students selected for good or improved attendance participated in a variety of football and non-contact games alongside Bond, Wright, Chomps and volunteers from the Brush High School Girls Flag Football team. The drills included the students catching and throwing a football to their classmates, working on their communication and teamwork skills. Students also competed in agility ladder relay races to improve ball control and in tic-tac-toe challenges focused on speed and accuracy.
“We’re celebrating the kids, attendance and rewarding them with gifts and just coming in to be a part of the Gym Class Takeover,” Wright said. “We’re just having fun with them, just celebrating that school is important, attendance is important. In order for you to learn, you have to show up but just take it seriously.”
Launched in 2019 by the Cleveland Browns Foundation, Ohio Department of Education and Workforce and Harvard’s Proving Ground, the Stay in the Game! Attendance Network, now managed by Battelle, works together to reduce chronic absenteeism by bringing together experts, partners and communities. The Network partners with 237 districts and impacts more than 600,000 students throughout Ohio.
Sunview Elementary School and South-Euclid Lyndhurst City District joined the Network in the 2023-24 school year. Coordinator of Student Services Dawn Imler works as a liaison between Sunview and SITG!, and remembers the Browns’ efforts to increase attendance even before the Network was launched. She recalled the ‘You Can Make It!’ campaign to encourage kids to go to school that featured recorded calls from Browns players about the importance of attending school. Now, Imler said events like the Gym Class Takeover continue to create memories for the students as well as encourage their dedication to attendance.
“I’m beyond appreciative for this because the kids will walk away from this, love this and they’ll talk about it,” Imler said. “The Browns supporting the students and coming in here, it’s important because this might be the only validation they receive.”