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• A 3-2 vote by the Whiteville City Schools Board of Education reverses a controversial decision made two years ago and applies it to all extracurricular activities. By FULLER ROYAL It’s official. The Whiteville City Schools Board of Education voted Oct. 9 to reinstate the 2.0 minimum, raising it from the 0.75 minimum required by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association and to apply it to all extracurricular activities, not just athetics. Also, as required by the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s eligibility requirements, students may not miss more than 13 days during a given semester. After a student misses more than 13 days, the student will be ineligible to participate in athletics or extracurricular activities for the remainder of the semester and will be ineligible to participate the following semester. Only students who are in good standing with the Whiteville City Schools’ student code of conduct will be allowed to participate in athletics and/or extracurricular activities. Entering freshmen will be eligible first semester based on promotion to the ninth grade. Freshmen eligibility for the second and subsequent semesters will be as aforementioned. A student wishing to participate in athletics or extracurricular activities, whose previous semester grade point average falls below the Whiteville City School academic requirement, will be placed on probation the subsequent semester during which he/she may still participate in interscholastic athletics and extracurricular activities based on six-weeks evaluations. If, at the end of the first and second six weeks, the student has a 2.0 or above in courses he/she is taking, the student continues the academic intervention plan and remains eligible to participate in athletics and/or extracurricular activities. Six-weeks are evaluated independently and not cumulatively. During the probationary period, it shall be the responsibility of the school to develop an academic intervention plan designed to improve student performance. This plan must provide additional support above and beyond what is offered by the academic success program. If, at the end of either six weeks, the student falls below 2.0 in courses taken, he/she becomes ineligible to participate in athletics for the remainder of that semester but may continue the academic intervention plan. Students may not be placed on probation for two consecutive semesters. Those students who have been duly evaluated and determined to have a handicapping condition that requires a modification of the student’s educational program of studies and is outlined in an IEP shall be graded in accordance with the specifications stated in the IEP. Board Chairman Carlton Prince and members Jim DiMuzio and Larry Hewett voted for the requirement. Members Greg Merritt and Dave Flowers voted against it. When the requirement was removed in 2005, Flowers and Merritt had voted with then chairman Terry Caroll to end the policy. Prince and former board member LaDeen Powell voted to keep the policy. The 2005 vote was taken the same night it was suggested, without a chance for public input and led to the establishment the following year of a new policy requiring one month between the proposal of a policy and its actual adoption. Last month, The News Reporter erroneously reported that the 2.0 GPA requirement had been approved at the Sept. 10 meeting.
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