CC School Board decision on GPA expected this month

A vote on raising academic standards for students participating in sports and other extracurricular activities in Charles City’s school system is expected when the county’s School Board meets on April 21.

At issue is leaving the current standard — a 2.0 grade-point average — for eligibility in place or raising the bar in increments until eventually reaching 3.0.

The proposal stems from a 2005 School Board decision that established a 2.0 benchmark for that year. But under the approved policy, the GPA requirement would be raised to 2.5 the next year and to 2.75 the following year before eventually reaching 3.0 in three years.

Due to frequent administration changes at the high school, however, the policy was never enforced and thus the current 2.0 standard remained.

The matter resurfaced during the board’s meeting last September, but had been placed once again on the back burner. That is until the board’s March 17 meeting.

Board member Roy Campbell revealed statistics showing the average GPA for all students participating in sports at Charles City High School stands at 2.6. Girls’ averages tend to range higher than boys, he added.

“If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” Campbell told fellow board members. “I feel our kids are doing well, and I feel 3.0 is entirely too high.

“What more do we ask of our kids?” he added. “They’re already working themselves to death.”

Campbell’s assessment received support from board member Preston Adkins, but another board member, Royce Paige, disagreed.

“Why do we want to leave it at 2.0 if the children are working at 2.6?” he asked, adding the level at which Charles City student/athletes now stand serves as incentive for moving closer to 3.0.

“Some people can’t operate at 3.0, and I don’t want to penalize them,” Campbell responded.

Paige said not raising the bar could have a damaging effect later on students, adding, “Children have to be able to compete with everybody now.”

Adkins said that since the 2005 policy was never enacted, there should be no call for raising the GPA now.

“Leave it alone,” he said. “Everybody’s not college material.”

Both Campbell and Adkins were not on the board when the policy passed in 2005.

A few people in the audience weighed in on the proposal during the meeting’s public comment session.

Courtney Wynn, a Charles City student currently enrolled at Maggie Walker Governor’s School, sided with Paige.

“2.0 is too low, and is merely accepting the status quo,” she said, adding that staying at 2.0 eventually relegates students to the working class.

“3.0 is not very high,” she said. “If students really want to play sports, they would work to that standard.”

David Banks, a Charles City graduate, took the opposite stance.

“If it wasn’t for sports, I probably wouldn’t have stayed in school,” he said. “If you up the standards, you’re going to put a lot of kids on the street.”

The GPA standard applies to athletics and all events sponsored by the Virginia High School League, including forensics and drama. Marching band is not affected since it is not sponsored by VHSL.

Current VHSL policy requires a student to pass five academic subjects each semester in order to maintain eligibility. There is no GPA requirement, but individual school systems have the option to impose more stringent academic measures.