Timberlane toughens academic standards for athletes, Get an "F" and your off the team!

From the Eagle Tribune;

April 11, 2011
Timberlane toughens academic standards for athletes

By Cara Hogan chogan@eagletribune.com The Eagle Tribune Mon Apr 11, 2011, 03:14 AM EDT

PLAISTOW — Get an F and you're off the team.

That's the new rule for athletes at Timberlane Regional High School, and it's one of the strictest policies among Southern New Hampshire high schools.

The Timberlane District School Board unanimously approved a new policy last week to suspend any player who gets an F in one class per quarter. The change is fairly drastic: The old policy allowed three failing grades each quarter from student-athletes.

Timberlane Superintendant Richard La Salle said the board had been considering rewriting the rule for the past year.

"This is a significant change," he said. "It does increase the expectation that a student, to begin a season, should not have earned an F in the previous quarter. We value high standards and we're supporting our students to get there."

La Salle said the school's policy is now much stricter than the New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association regulations. The state says high school players cannot fail four classes per grading period, though the rule is just a base guideline for many schools.

Timberlane is one of the only local school districts with zero tolerance for failure. At Salem High School, athletic director David Rozumek said once a student fails two classes, they're off the team.

"There are a few that are a little bit stricter, but we have not done that yet," Rozumek said. "At Salem, we're proactive; we are all about coaches. A vast majority of them have weekly reports on our athletes. We lose very few to bad grades."

Pinkerton Academy athletic director Tim Powers said students must pass at least four classes out of five to play. But the school is considering tightening the requirements at the Derry school.

"The policy is being examined," he said. "The school is thinking of raising the number of classes to pass or a combination of passing and not failing. There are different ideas on the table. It's in the early stages."

Pelham High School athletic director Todd Cress said the school follows a block schedule with only four classes per quarter.

"When report cards come out, they have to be passing three of the four — or 75 percent," he said. "The kids are aware of this and it's really not that big of an issue. For the most part, our athletes do the job in the classroom and get the grades they need to."

Windham High School athletic administrator Bill Raycraft said they follow the NHIAA policy exactly.

"We accept four failures before suspending a student," he said. "That's our minimum standard. If a student had numerous failures, we'd certainly speak to them about whether they had the ability to properly time manage between school and athletics."

He said the school is not thinking of changing the rule.

"Student athletes are already held to a higher standard. They're missing class and homework time, and have to balance that anyway," Raycraft said. "To make it more difficult to stay on seems counterproductive. Athletes generally have higher grades than other students, and to take that away from the borderline students would be detrimental."

Timberlane School Board member William Baldwin was a strong supporter of changing to the zero tolerance policy.

"Now they understand we accept no failures; you either pass and play or fail and don't play," he said. "I don't believe high school is just for sports. I think sports helps to make them well rounded and a part of the experience. Education is the number one priority. And I'll stick behind that as long as I'm on the board."

Other Timberlane board members wanted to be more lenient and open to special circumstances, which did become part of the policy. "If there are extenuating circumstances, there is an appeal committee that (students) can go to," La Salle said.

The Activity Eligibility Committee hears the appeals. If the student can show a valid reason for the failure, the principal can make an exception.

La Salle said there is also a path for students to work to bring up their grades and be allowed back on a team.

"There is some leeway in the policy," he said. "We're going to be monitoring kids while they're in season. If a grade drops to an F before the end of the quarter, they will work with the athletic director to bring those grades up. And during the summer they can remediate a fourth-quarter F."

The new policy also sets standards for class attendance and the number of credits earned each year.