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Schools

BOE: Extracurriculars, Online Credit Recovery

Highlights from the Glen Cove School Board meeting.

The Glen Cove Board of Education adopted a policy amending the academic eligibility for extracurricular activities at .

The new policy will change the ineligibility threshold from two failed classes to three, while it will increase the probation threshold from one class to two. Additionally, probation will be one quarter, decreased from two.

BOE Vice President David Huggins agreed with the policy.

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"Once you lose a kid for a season, or even a game, the odds of them returning drop rapidly," he said. "We can't afford to have our kids on the street wandering aimlessly. If a kid is a good actor, musician, or athlete, we can use that to help motivate them to improve. We've lost so many great athletes these past ten years, and we never saw them again. As board members, as educators, we failed them because they didn't have the opportunity to do something to make their lives better."

Trustee Joel Sunshine questioned the rationale of the new policy, as it would allow more students to participate in extracurricular activities.

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"Liberalizing our policies so that less children will be suspended from extracurricular activities in and of itself isn't doing anybody a service," he said. "If we were placing a monitor on a kid once they fail a class, such as a coach or a teacher, it'd be one thing. But all we're doing is making it harder for them to be ineligible."

Athletic Director Denise Kiernan said coaches now have access to their teams to monitor attendance and their standing in class.

Online Credit Recovery Course

The board also approved the implementation of the APEX On-Line Credit Recovery program to run after school and to begin October 2011 and conclude during or before June 2012. 

Dr. Shari Camhi said that the program, which will direct itself in its implementation, will be supervised in two labs by teachers who will be able to control the content behind the scenes.

Community Service Option

The board is also reviewing the amendment of the policy requiring students to complete community service hours upon graduation from high school.

"The fact is that we had 52 seniors who weren't in position to graduate this past year," said Principal Joseph Hinton. "A lot of students will do the community service even if it isn't a requirement."

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