Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Kids to Play Despite Grades

Two Gurdon students will be allowed to compete in extracurricular activities though they didn't meet the 2.0 grade point average requirement.

This was decided in a special meeting of the Gurdon School Board Tuesday, Jan. 6.

However, this does not mean the students in question are getting a free ride.

According to Bobby Smithson, Gurdon superintendent, a new grade point option, adopted by the Arkansas Department of Education, is how the students can participate in athletics.

Under the new option, he said, students not making the required minimum 2.0 GPA can obtain a waiver if they passed at least four subject in the preceding semester, or if they scored in the 50 percentile or higher on the Stanford 9 tests. The third option is for the students to undergo 100 minutes of remediation per week in the subjects they did not make the 2.0 GPA in.

Smithson said the students involved will be undergoing the remediation, as they didn't score high enough on the Stanford 9 tests.

Another decision made by the board was to allow the Gurdon Basketball Booster Club to operate the concession stand during home games.

But, Smithson said, there are conditions under which the club must do this. First, no member of the club will be admitted to the game free if they are not working the stand.

In addition, the club will be responsible for all expenditures for the boys' and girls' programs with the exception of travel and official expenses. This includes out of town meals and athletic apparel for the players.

Also, Smithson said, no other activity, except for pee wee basketball, can be held on school ground without prior approval by the district.

The money made at the concession stand during the first part of the 1997-98 season will be used to pay for items in the basketball budget.

The final order of business for the board was to hire Mary Thompson as special education teacher for the district. She replaces the one who left before Christmas.