Written by Ainsley Hall and published in The Journal on November 20, 2025, link to article HERE.
The Martinsburg-Berkeley County Chamber of Commerce partnered with Blue Ridge Community and Technical College to host a Workforce Development Discussion on Tuesday.
Through the Classroom to Career session, guests participated in a panel discussion about absenteeism and how it impacts both students and employees. The panel included Hal Van Metre, director of attendance at Berkeley County Schools; Patrick Winkelman, environment health and safety director at P&G Tabler Station and Justin Ruble, vice president of human resources at WVU Medicine. Vicky Fields moderated the discussion.
The goal of the event was to address the issue of absenteeism head on, while fostering partnerships between Berkeley County Schools and local businesses. Van Metre began the discussion by talking about chronic absenteeism in schools. He explained that over the last three years, the chronic absent rate has been at 23%, meaning 1 in 4 students miss more than 10% of the school year. That’s 5,000 students missing more than 18 days of school.
This could prevent a third grader from reading at grade level, which is an essential building block for learning. For a high schooler, chronic absenteeism is one of the biggest indicators of whether or not a student will graduate.
Meanwhile, in the workplace, being absent means missing deadlines, co-worker burnout and declining morale. Van Metre said that many employers say their biggest challenge is finding employees that simply show up to work.
“Schools get the same thing over and over from employers — get us young people who are dependable, who communicate, who show up on time and can teach the rest,” he said. “Attendance is not just a school issue. It’s not just a business issue. It’s a community readiness issue.”
Van Metre continued, saying that the habits students build in school become habits in the workplace. Building better foundations starting as young as 5 years old can help a child be successful in the future.
Throughout the discussion, Van Metre, Winkelman and Ruble explained how their organizations handle absenteeism, talking about the root cause and the generational difference. Though they agree that absences can be reasonable, such as an illness or lack of child care, chronic absenteeism is often the result of personal choices.
Winkelman said that P&G has programs to help employees struggling with child care, transportation, mental health or other reasons employees are absent from work. At the end of the day, it’s often personal choices that lead people to miss work. Ruble agreed, adding that sometimes absenteeism also requires looking inward, finding ways to support employees and being willing to have difficult discussions on work satisfaction.
When it comes to generational differences, Van Metre believes it has more to do with changes in the law than the generation itself. In the past, when a student missed school, they received a zero for that day’s work. Now, students can make up their work online. Being absent doesn’t have an immediate impact on a student’s grades, leading to less accountability.
Van Metre ended the discussion by talking about the importance of community involvement. He believes in the importance of school choice and finding what works best for every child, but in order to improve public education, schools need people to be invested in their success.
“The big thing that can come from you guys that would help us is some support — coming out, supporting what we’re doing, modeling the behavior that we’re asking for, talking to your legislators and telling them education is important. We need to do stuff differently,” Van Metre said.