As a member of the school committee, I felt it was important to weigh in on this issue. It is easy to provide definitions of extracurricular to defend your position on this issue as well as state since it is a requirement these activities should be exempt from the academic eligibility rule. I agree that some of these activities are assessments and therefore should be outside of the scope of the eligibility requirements.
My position is and will remain that not all activities are created equal and some of these activities should be classified as extracurricular and not requirements. Some of these activities take place during the day and actually take children out of the classes they are failing. That to me is unacceptable. I don't care if it for the Arts, Athletics, Robotics, DECA, etc. No student should be leaving during the school day for any reason and missing classes if they are failing, especially if they are missing the classes they are failing.
It is easy to claim that students choose to play a sport because they like it. I believe that after most students meet their Arts requirements of 1 class for graduation, they also are choosing to continue to take Arts classes because they like it. Those additional classes are not a requirement just like athletics are not a requirement.
I do believe that Performing Arts Department has the best interests of their students at heart. They are caring, skilled teachers who have created an Arts Department that is one of the best in the state. That being said, their students need to pass their classes if they want to go forward in any post high school experience after they graduate. Yes, I believe in the importance of the Arts, but I also believe in the importance of Athletics and all other activities that connect children to their school.
At the end of they day, we want all our students to not only be successful in one certain content area, but to achieve a foundation in all content areas so they can follow their dreams wherever they wish to go.
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