(Spirit Lake)– The Spirit Lake School Board voted Monday evening to tighten the district’s academic eligibility guidelines. The vote wasn’t unanimous, though. It came on the heels of a motion by board member Cliff Garvey to leave the current policy in place along with a monitoring of grades every three weeks. The motion failed on a two-to-three vote with Garvey and Beth Will in favor and Mike Donahue, Craig Newell and Ann Goerss voting no.
A motion was then made to adopt a recommendation crafted by an administrative committee. Under that policy, students failing more than one class will be ineligible; grades will be checked every three weeks–if a student is failing more than one class, he or she will be monitored and given notice for a three-week period. If there is still no progress after the three weeks, the student will be ineligible for three weeks. Students deemed ineligible will have to develop with their teacher a plan for improvement. Students will also be able to appeal their status to the principal. Will, Newell, Goerss and Garvey voted in favor of adopting the measure, Donahue abstained. The new policy goes in effect this coming fall.
Tightening academic eligibility guidelines has been a source of controversy with the Spirit Lake school board for the last couple of months. Proponents of tougher standards say too many students are failing; opponents say the tougher standards may cause at-risk students to drop out of school if they’re no longer eligible to participate in activities.
