Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Board discusses after school athletics program

Athletics was among the topics discussed by the Gurdon School Board during the April meeting and Gurdon Superintendent Bobby Smithson said one possibility is to have all athletics take place after school.

The board also approved the calendar and personnel for the 2004-2005 school year, and students at the middle school could be facing some changes with scheduling.

Cabe Middle School Principal Libby White told the board she would like to see middle school students go to a "modified block" program. The reasoning, White said, is to eliminate some discipline problems, increase emphasis on math and reading, and to meet the unique challenges of the middle school students.

"These are like no other grades," White said.

There are some major advantages with the modified block scheduling, the board was told. Teachers will be divided into teams and each team will have more flexibility to schedule projects and activities. For example, one 90-minute block of time is split between science and history. If the science teacher had an extra lab planned for the students, they could spend one extra class time in science while their counterparts spent extra time in history. The next day, the classes would be reversed.

An important academic advantage is that students will have a full 90-minute block of time in math and language arts each day. Currently, the students who have 90 minutes in those classes have that time split between the morning and afternoon.

The block schedule also eliminates 35 minutes of breaks and teachers will organize their own restroom/water breaks.

One common excuse of the students in the fifth to eighth grades are they "forgot" some necessary item at home or in their locker. White said a set of classroom textbooks would help with that problem. The students would have a book of their own to take home, but each classroom would also have a set of books, so the student no longer needs to take the books back and forth. A set of classroom supplies  pencils, folders and paper  would mean students have the items necessary to begin work without the excuse of another trip to their locker.

White said they are also looking at taking out lockers because the time at lockers is typically an opportunity for shoving and other discipline problems. She said there could be other options for students to have a place for their personal items. She said clear plastic backpacks are also being considered.

White said two of the biggest challenges facing the scheduling of the modified block program were the teachers who are shared with the high school and slating time for athletics.

Smithson said the board is going to have to make some decisions about policies related to athletics soon.

"I think we're fast approaching the time that we've got to have athletics after school," Smithson told the board. He said that is not going to be a popular stand, but said there are some real problems with having athletics during the school day.

One of those involves a current ninth-grade student who, Smithson said, wants to be an honor student. However, because the student is involved in football, he doesn't have enough academic credits to meet the school's policy requirements to be an honor student. Smithson said the father asked what could be done and Smithson agrees the situation is not fair, but said there's nothing that can be done under the school's current policy.

He told the board, "in a month or two," he would ask them to consider either changing the honor policy or having athletics after normal school hours.

Smithson also gave the board an update on the financial status of the extracurricular programs at Gurdon. He said football and yearbook were the two most in arrears. The total needed to pay off all extracurricular programs this year will be about $35,000. Smithson said football will have to be addressed soon with higher admission rates or the school committing more annual funds to pay for the program.

He said that the district's overall financial condition was stable.

"Everything looks good except high school activities and we knew we were going to have to bail that out."

In other business, the board got an overview of the calendar for the 2004-5 school year from the district's Personnel Policy Committee. PPC president Pat Talley gave board members a copy of the revised personnel policy for teachers and staff, saying the board could take time before the May meeting to read over the policies. Questions will be addressed at the next meeting.

Talley said board approval was needed for the calendar, which had already been voted on and approved by the teachers. According to the calendar, school will begin with teacher in-service days on Aug. 12. The first day for students will be Aug. 19. Graduation will be held on May 13, 2005, and May 27 will be the last day of school. The calendar meets state requirements of 178 school days for students, two parent-teacher conference days on Oct. 21 and Feb. 10, and 10 days of teacher in-service for a total of 190 days.

The board took about a half hour to consider hiring teachers for the next year. One notable change in the district is the retirement of Coach Ed Reece. In a letter to the board, Reece said he would retire effective at the end of this school year. The board also approved a transfer for Beth Miller from her position as a second grade teacher to physical education teacher at the primary school, and for Carla Jester, who requested to be transferred from the fifth grade to Miller's position in the second grade.

In other business:

* The board voted to not have a middle school graduation for students passing from the eighth grade, citing the desire to not detract from the high school seniors' graduation.

* Heard a presentation by John McIntyre of Counseling Consortium, Inc., a Hot Springs company. McIntyre asked the board to consider hiring his company to provide counseling services to the school He said the company was formed very recently and is in the process of hiring staff, but assured board members that the staff would be adequate to meet the district's needs.