Greene County Middle School students who struggle to maintain their academic eligibility for extra curricular activities will have weekly opportunities for “redemption” with a policy change approved by the Greene County board of education at its May meeting. The policy applies not only to athletics, but to band, choir, drama, and other activities.
Under the current policy, to be eligible students must be passing every class and making adequate academic progress as it is determined at the mid-point and end of each grading period. A student who fails a course is ineligible for the entire next evaluation period – six weeks with the trimester schedule.
According to middle school principal Shawn Zanders, the length of time a student would have to “sit out” of an activity is a deterrent to participation by some students.
The policy revision calls for reviewing grades and eligibility every three weeks (a “tri-term”). Students who have no failing grades will be eligible for the next tri-term. Students who have a failing grade will not be allowed to participate the following week, but their grades will be reviewed every week rather than waiting for tri-term to end. Their eligibility will be on a week-by-week basis, and can be re-instated when the student improves his or her grades. Students who do not improve their grades will remain ineligible.
Zanders told the board he has used that policy in other schools with good results. “It condenses the amount of time kids are ineligible, and it gives them an immediate opportunity to regain their eligibility, but still holds them to the same standard. They have to pass all their classes,” Zanders said.
“I think it is pretty innovative,” board member Sam Harding said. “With that age bracket, focus is a hard thing for them. When you take that away, they’re done.” He praised the new policy, saying that the week-by-week determination would keep students working, and that they’d miss less participation time and fall less far behind their participating peers.
“It focuses more on reward than punishment,” board member David Ohrt said.
The board approved the change unanimously. The change will be effective for the new school year.
