Apparently a new “policy” came from the State today- kids at charters who participate in sports at public schools- must play for the school closest to their home, not the school closest to their other school.
Kids who go to DECA and have played at Belmont for years, now are being told they have to go to Meadowdale.
Only two slight problems- DECA gets out at 3:30, Belmont gets out at 3:40 and Meadowdale, all the way across the city- gets out at 2:30. DECA is literally a 10 minute bike ride to Belmont.
Beam me up Scotty, no signs of intelligent life here.
Supposedly this came down from OHSAA, which has no idea of how convoluted our district is.
This isn’t about the kids, it’s not for the kids, it’s payback for DPS hiring Mark “the cheater” Baker to a two year contract.
It’s time this entire board goes, Baker goes, and someone gets fired for stealing the money from the gates of whatever sporting events were stolen.
The buck, literally, has to stop somewhere and soon.
This policy is insane, as is the entire premise of local control if this rule is allowed to stand.
Parents are livid. Kids are crying. Who benefits from this policy?
Update: 9:45 PM- here is the actual rule from the State [1]. It was created for 2007-08 school year- but updated April 2017
In other words, our District AD knew back in April (or should have) and sat on it.
Rule 1- if you don’t want to download the PDF (Which I’ve attached) here is the key language:
“For a matriculating 9th grade student whose parents live within the district and the student is a nontraditional/specialty student, home educated student, community school student, STEM school student or a non-public school student wanting to utilize Bylaw 4-3-1 exception 4 or 6 to participate in athletics at a high school where they are not enrolled, the district shall assign these students to the high school nearest to their parents’ residence within the district or, if separate attendance zones have been created, to the closest high school within the attendance zone of their parents’ residence regardless of whether that member school is poor performing. (* **See “notes” for additional information regarding non-public school students and home educated students). Note also that parents who live outside this multiple high school district may choose to send a 9th grade student to a non-traditional/specialty school within the district. Such a student shall be assigned for athletics at the district high school which is closest to the parents’ residence outside the district.
[2]PDF_ click to download