TUPPER LAKE — It pays to show up.

The “currency,” in this case? Pizza, courtesy of the principal.

At the beginning of the school year, Tupper Lake Middle-High School Principal Chris Savage posed a challenge to his students. The class with the highest attendance rate for September would win a pizza party.

At Monday’s regular school board meeting, Savage announced that the eighth-grade class won with an attendance rate of 96.5%. The middle-high school includes grades seven through 12.

“It really stood out, a couple of points above all the other classes,” he said.

At past board meetings, Savage has spoken of the importance of maintaining high attendance as a key for academic success. The pizza challenge provided an incentive for students to start the year strong and establish good habits early. At TLCSD’s Sept. 8 school board meeting, Savage said he was rolling out monthly “town hall” meetings with each grade level this year.

He said these meetings are a chance to set tangible academic goals, with attendance being one of those metrics, and to review the class’s progress from the last month’s meeting. Doing so regularly helps students to stay accountable to their goals. It’s a more tailored approach than speaking to the entire school at once, and Savage said each meeting is about 20 minutes.

“It’s a good opportunity for me to share information and get feedback from students on what their thoughts are on things that we’re trying to accomplish,” he said.

Savage said September’s focus was on the attributes of a good citizen-student, as well as the benefits of taking some extra time to organize. For instance, using a schedule planner to not only perform better as a student, but to ultimately save time by working more efficiently.