Officials Considered Changing Academic Probation Time for Ineligible Students

Public school officials recently considered changing the procedure for students who failed to meet academic requirements for extracurricular activities before deciding that the current system would remain in place.

The rule in question pertained to when academic probation would begin for those students declared ineligible. Currently, violators can’t participate in after-school activities the same day they’re informed of their ineligibility. For this fall, students are informed when reports cards are issued on Nov. 11.

Students are declared ineligible if they earn a GPA lower than 2.0 or fail more than one class.

Traditionally, those students are then automatically entered into a period known as “probation,” where they are allotted 16 school days to earn at least a 2.0 and attend six hours of study sessions while failing no more than one class. If still failing during that time frame, students are disallowed to partake in any extracurricular activity until the next marking period.

“Realistically, we get a pretty good percentage, about 90 [percent] make it through probation,” said Joshua Molnar, Old Mill’s academic advisory for extracurricular activities.

However, Molnar told Patch that the immediacy of the probationary period almost changed this week.

Molnar said the county’s academic advisors and the county’s director of athletics, Greg LeGrand, almost moved the start of the probation period to the first day of winter sports. 

The move would have greatly affected students involved in winter activities and freed up those ineligible to participate one last time in any late-fall activities, like playoff sports.

But since the change was denied, students who fail to meet their academic requirements will be forced to immediately withdraw from extracurricular activities.

For Old Mill and Meade football athletes, being declared ineligible would keep them from participating in any playoff games, which begin Nov. 11.