PC School board reviews activity participation policies

Superintendent Phillip Picquet said they’ve had some questions regarding their policy on homeschool/parochial school students participating in school activities. The Nebraska School Activities Association (NSAA) changed their rules at the beginning of this school year on this topic, which Picquet said didn’t match with what had been done at Perkins County Schools. 

The policy now states that students enrolled in a private, denominational or parochial school and not participating in extracurricular activities offered by that school may participate in activities at PCS if they are enrolled in at least 10 credit hours per semester. 

The previous policy required 20 credits, or half a day, to participate in extracurriculars. 

The board reviewed this policy at their meeting on April 15 and also discussed their policy on students attending activities after being absent. 

The current policy states that if a student is absent due to illness for the day or any part of the last half of the day the student will not participate in a school-sponsored activity that day. 

An absence the day before an all-day activity on the following day will result in the student not participating. This does not affect weekends and the intent is to limit missed class time. Special considerations will be taken into account. 

High School Principal, Dean Friedel also explained academic eligibility. If a student is failing two classes, they are placed on a warning for two weeks. If they remain failing two classes, they become ineligible to participate in extracurriculars until they are passing at least one of those classes.

This led the discussion to turn toward academic eligibility, and whether this policy needed changed. 

Board members discussed decreasing the number of failing courses, decreasing the two-week warning period, and of two failing classes, only one could be a core class. This then led to the question of which classes would be considered core classes. 

Ultimately, it was decided to keep the policy as is. 

Budget

Picquet went over the 2018-19 budget with the board. Currently, the projected difference between revenue and expenditures is $281,559 in the red. 

Last year at this time, they also showed a projected difference of $-280k, but ended up with an actual difference of $-35k. 

Picquet discussed the possibility of making a transfer from the special building fund, which currently has a balance of $328,435.73, but he does not think that will be necessary. 

Principal reports

Friedel reported that the ACT test given to the juniors at the Methodist Church on April 2 went well. 

Elementary Principal Nicole Long reported that the elementary music program was moved from April 30 to April 29 due to scheduling conflicts. The Best of the Midwest track meet is scheduled for April 29, and many of the elementary teachers are scheduled to attend that event as well. 

The next meeting will be held Tuesday, May 13.