VHSL cracking down on practice of letting student athletes repeat eighth grade
Published 05/23/2006
By STEPHEN IGO -Kingsport Times-News

WISE - The Virginia High School League will crack down on the practice of students repeating eighth grade for the purpose of athletic development, Wise County Supervisor of Secondary Education Gene Rowland told the county school board during Monday's workshop session.

Rowland said the VHSL's executive committee considered emergency legislation May 3 to ban students repeating eighth grade after successfully completing that grade. For many years in Wise County, the practice has been a popular strategy with some parents to hold back their children in order to have another year of playing middle school sports and mature physically and athletically.

At the urging of former interim School Superintendent Nolan Kilgore, the board last year banned the practice but with a one-year phase-in of the policy. However, the new board rescinded the new policy this year, and the practice was poised to continue in Wise County.

Rowland said the VHSL committee will require that students who successfully complete, yet repeat, eighth grade must take five new eighth grade courses during a semester - or three under a block schedule - to be eligible to compete at the eighth-grade level. Another popular aspect of Wise County's holdback strategy was for eighth-grade repeaters to take ninth-grade courses since they already passed all their eighth-grade coursework needed for promotion the previous year.

"The VHSL is going to take a stand (that) if a student takes more ninth-grade classes than eighth-grade classes, they will consider that student a ninth-grader," Rowland said.

Also, the VHSL will now stipulate that every student will enter eighth grade with 10 semesters of athletic eligibility.

"As administrators we've stepped back and let this be a decision left up to the parents and the schools," said School Superintendent Gregory Killough.

He said parents need to know of the VHSL stand on the matter to make informed decisions when it comes to holding their children back in eighth grade.

In other matters, an ailing Board Chairman Barry Nelson fired a broadside at a recent media account of school/county budgetary affairs. He said the board has not added two new administrative positions but merely approved some title changes as a part of Killough's reorganization of central office staff.

Killough originally asked $130,000 for his reorganization, but the board has since shaved that down to under $100,000, potentially a consideration now that the Wise County Board of Supervisors may ask the school board for another $200,000 in cuts from the school division's $825,000 request in new money for next fiscal year.

On Monday, Nelson said the $825,000 request was "a sum we were told would be acceptable" and $500,000 less than what the school board initially considered. Nelson indicated he was not pleased with a media account that apparently included comments unfavorable to the school board. He said the budget process "is not about personalities" but the focus of all involved with school issues should always be for the good of the children.

Recovering from recent surgery, Nelson then left the meeting and the gavel in the hands of Vice Chair Kyle Fletcher.

In other matters, the board took a look at a broad scope of potential renovations that may be required at the county's six high schools, honored 32 retiring teachers, reviewed a high school Standards of Learning report, and perused suggested price hikes for school lunches for the next school year.

If approved during the June 5 session, student breakfasts will go up by 15 cents to 75 cents; elementary lunches by 15 cents to $1.25; secondary school lunches by 25 cents to $1.50; and adult lunches by 15 cents to $2.50.

Rowland also reported 448 graduates this past school year, including 26 students with a 4.0 GPA or higher, 193 receiving advanced diplomas, and a total of a little over $1 million in scholarship money netted.

Twenty-six graduates formed St. Paul's Class of '06, and there were 43 in Appalachia's graduating class, 61 at Pound, 99 at Coeburn, 106 at Powell Valley, and 112 at J.J. Kelly.