educational standards
November 19, 2004
Bridgewater
Raynham
Easton
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Massachusetts
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Bridgewater-Raynham Schools
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USA
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Joseph Gillis Jr.
You can do something!
At this week's (11/19/04) B-R School Committee Meeting, an issue was presented concerning credit requirements for B-R Students. The current rule states that a student must be succeeding at 25 credits in order to be eligible for athletics. So, if a student takes 30 credits, an "F" (failure) or "I" (incomplete) would not adversely effect his/her ability to participate in sports.
With schedules the way that they are this current school year, many students do not have the ability to take more than 25 credits. Therefore, they must pass all courses. An argument was made that because of the scheduling issue, we have effectively eliminated the ability to fail a course. So, there was discusion to grant waivers for the current school year to the 25 credit requirement - to either 20 credits, or to allow for failing.
Mark Oliari of the School Committee argued against this, as wrong to lower our standards - we say EXPECT THE BEST! I, too, was against this as a policy. We should be concerned with education first - not athletics. However, being mindful of the situation, proposed that we institute an "Appeals Process" for someone who has fallen below the 25 credit minimum. I did not believe in a blanket statement, and believed it best for a student to have to appeal for a waiver individually to the rule - based on specific reasons to explain why the credits were not obtained. The School already has other "Appeals Process" in place. In fact, the 2nd page of the handout School Committee Members were provided as backup on this issue talked about "Appeals" for other decisions. I therefore made a motion that if a student wishes to appeal the decision, it would be heard be the Principal and two teachers.
The rest of the Committee did not like any of the concerns brought up by Mark and I, and decided to vote to allow a student to drop below the threshold for one marking period only. So, Mark and I voted against this.
