Two local school districts plan on moving forward with hiring a truancy officer and hope to have a person in place soon to boost attendance for the upcoming school year. School boards and administrators from Warren County R-III and Wright City R-II met last Wednesday, Aug. 5, to discuss a future hiring. R-II Superintendent Dr. Chris Gaines and R-III Superintendent Dr. John Long said it's yet to be decided if the truancy officer will be employed at the juvenile office, a state position, or the sheriff's department. Both districts are still waiting to hear word on if their grant applications would be approved to fund the position. They estimate a truancy officer to cost $45,000 annually, including benefits on top of a $32,000 salary. Should the grant application be denied or only partially funded, district officials expect to offset the cost of the truancy officer by receiving more state aid due to higher attendance figures. "The consensus is we need to move forward," Gaines said. "We don't know about the grant outcome." Gaines hopes to have a person in place by October if not sooner. Excluding Wright City East Elementary, which opens this Friday, both school districts begin classes next week. "It's important to be in school every day," he said. "Everybody recognizes it as a problem and we need to do something with it." Once a truancy officer is in place, Long said the R-III district would be responsible for paying two-thirds of the salary due to its higher enrollment. The R-II district would be responsible for the remaining third. The payments between the districts would be re-evaluated later in the year depending on if the officer spent a significant amount of time at one district over the other, particularly in the R-II district since it is paying less for the service. Both districts began exploring the needs for a truancy officer in February by sending a joint letter to county officials promoting the idea. According to 2007-08 figures, attendance in the R-II district was at 93.8 percent and 93.1 percent in the R-III district. Both failed to meet state standards. Both districts had the two lowest attendance figures compared to 10 other surrounding schools districts. By law, kids 16 and under must attend school. School officials said they are not seeking to find students who have legitimate reasons for not being in school, such as a sickness or other appointments. "We are seeing progress, but it's a long, tough road," Long said. In an effort to boost attendance, both school districts have offered incentives to students to encourage them to attend daily, even going as far as last year's arrangement with Zeiser Chrysler to have a drawing for a used car for Warrenton High School students who met monthly attendance figures. "By the first of the year, we should see gains pretty quickly," Long said.