Eligibility Standards Specified At WCS

Waterville sophomore Jaelyn Northrop and senior Oscar Yang are this year’s student representatives for the Board of Education.

Waterville Junior-Senior High School athletes will have a more defined set of expectations for them to remain eligible to participate in their sport.

The regulations also cover students in Drama and Musical productions. WCS Superintendent Zach Abbe said at last week’s Board of Education meeting that adding a specified structure will make it easier to track students who are having trouble in the classroom.

Abbe said this will earlier identify students who need to focus more on academics during their season.

Grade point checks will be done for all athletes every five weeks. If a student is passing and in good standing in all classes, full sports participation can continue.

Students failing one course will be put on probation. They can still fully participate but also have to attend a structured academic study hall until the next check-in.

After one week, a teacher can sign off if there is improvement, or the student will remain on probation.

If after two weeks the student has not made enough improvement, they will become ineligible.

Students failing more than one course will be ineligible to compete in games.

They will be expected to attend all practices, along with the structured study hall.

After one week, the student can move to probation status if there is improvement, or remain ineligible.

Another week of improvement would put the student back to full eligibility.

Abbe said the steps are to do what is best for students.

“This is not punitive but an intervention,’’ he said.

Students who have academic difficulties in the spring will have the status ...