MANCHESTER — The Board of School Committee will review punishment meted out to misbehaving students and ways to honor some of the district’s better students at its meeting tonight.

The board will hear an update on discipline in the schools when it convenes for a regular summer meeting at 7 p.m. A board subcommittee will review a proposed policy change so the district can recognize students who achieve perfect attendance.

The board’s Coordination Committee is expected to first consider implementation of a formal policy to recognize students who achieve perfect attendance through an entire school year.

The panel’s special meeting was called at the insistence of Mayor Ted Gatsas, who was upset that the new attendance policy taken up by the board last month did not include a provision to identify and recognize students who went through four years of high school without missing a day. Gatsas said he was disappointed that the department did not have a policy in place during the 2011-12 school to identify and recognize students with perfect attendance in high school.

A draft policy would define perfect attendance at being in school for at least five entire class periods on every day of the school year.

“I want to make sure it is in place before school starts so that we can recognize somebody should they achieve that in their four years of high school,” the mayor told the school board last month.

School officials said that the lack of a formal policy meant perfect attendance was not tracked in the schools this past year. Two girls at Memorial High School were recognized in the previous year for not missing a day in four years.

The board’s Student Conduct Committee conducted six expulsion hearings over the 2011-12 school year, and expelled all six students accused.

Three of the expelled students were middle school students kicked out of school for possession of knives. Two Memorial High School students were expelled for bullying, and one Memorial student was tossed for assaulting another student.

Expulsions are generally for a 365-day period. Two of the students given that penalty this past year have been allowed to return to school and others are seeking approval of conditions to return.

A student expelled in March for assaulting a fellow student was allowed to return to Memorial with probationary conditions including 100 hours of community service; a Parkside Middle School student expelled in May was allowed to return to school on good behavior. Three others are seeing reinstatement after completing the YMCA STRIVE program for at-risk youngsters.

In the previous school year, 14 expulsion hearings were held and eight students were expelled.

The report also details suspensions appealed to Superintendent of Schools Thomas Brennan. Of the 39 disciplinary referrals, 10 were for possession of a knife in school, and six of the 10 were middle school students.

The full board will also take up the issue of pricing for the school lunch program. Last month, a decision on hiking the price of lunch was deferred.

The board will also receive nominations from the athletic department for school coaching vacancies for fall sports. No high school varsity head coaching jobs are on the list. The board agenda also includes a public comment period.

billsmith@unionleader.com