ASHLAND — The Ashland City Schools Board of Education unanimously voted to raise the district’s extracurricular participation requirements at its regular meeting on Monday.
For years, Ashland students that wanted to participate in extracurricular activities like sports or band only had to meet the Ohio High School Athletic Association’s minimum requirement of passing five one-credit courses every nine weeks.
After the board’s vote on Monday, starting with the 2023-2024 school year Ashland students will have to maintain a 1.5 GPA, have an F letter grade in no more than one class and still meet the OHSAA minimum requirement to join extracurriculars.
“We are well aware that activities do drive the motivation of the majority of our students and that’s what gets them through school. But you still have to hold that standard,” Supt. Steve Paramore said.
“I am 1000% comfortable recommending this not only to the board, but stating to our community that we are going to operate above just the bare minimum that these governing bodies say is what you need to be.”
The new standards will also require students that are risking their ineligibility with a GPA of 1.8 or lower to regularly meet with teachers during “Arrow Time,” a 40-minute period during the school day where students can get help with subjects they’re struggling with.
Board member Zack Truax, who said he would have been an at-risk student until his sophomore year of high school, praised the new 1.8 GPA at-risk threshold, saying tutoring is what eventually allowed him to turn his academics around.
“If that at-risk threshold encourages kids to go see other teachers to maybe get different perspectives on learning and study habits, and it unlocks the key, I mean the benefits are exponential,” he said.
When the new requirements take effect next school year, fall athletes will still be eligible under the district’s old requirements “to allow people to have plenty of time to get used to that new policy change,” Ashland High School Principal Josh Packard said.
The board also approved a purchase agreement with Simonson Construction to install a bus loop at its outdoor learning center on Mifflin Avenue for $56,668.
The outdoor learning center is an “amazing resource” that the district has not been able to “fully tap into” since Truax joined the board in 2018, so he’s excited for the bus loop, he said.
“I’ve been smiling all week about this,” he said.
In other business, the board approved the retire-rehire of deputy superintendent Linda McKibben and entered into a five-year contract with district treasurer Kyle Klingler.
