After more than 20 Sobrato cheerleaders and their parents
stormed the school board meeting Wednesday night, district
officials will allow Sobrato’s cheer team to attend its national
competition in four weeks despite a paperwork error.
After more than 20 Sobrato cheerleaders and their parents stormed the school board meeting Wednesday night, district officials will allow Sobrato’s cheer team to attend its national competition in four weeks despite a paperwork error.
“That’s so exciting!” Junior Hayley Nichols exclaimed upon hearing the news. “I’m so happy. The whole thing was just … We really lost morale thinking we weren’t going. This will really bring us back up and we’ll kick it into gear.”
Cheer mom Jenny Perez’s reaction was at first smug and then, exuberant.
“I’m not surprised,” Perez said. Then, “We’re going to Disneyland!,” referring to the National Cheerleading Competition’s Anaheim location.
District officials announced the decision via an e-mailed statement to the Times late Thursday afternoon.
“It is clear that the paperwork was not submitted in the timeline set forth by the Morgan Hill Unified School District Board of Education,” the statement reads. “Yet, it appears there may have been some mitigating factors regarding the Cheerleading trip request. Therefore, the trip will be allowed this one time.”
During the school board’s special meeting Wednesday night, cheer parents plead for a reversal of Principal Debbie Padilla’s decision to deny attendance based on late paperwork.
While some board members appeared sympathetic, the topic was not on Wednesday night’s agenda so they couldn’t discuss it fully. At first, they opted to schedule an emergency meeting for today or Saturday. But Thursday, district officials reviewed the policy and chose to allow the exception.
Field trips for overnight stays or out-of-state trips must be approved by the Morgan Hill Unified School Districts’ board of trustees at least 60 days before the trip, according to board policy. Since the competition would include a one- or two-night stay in Anaheim, it fell under these guidelines but Coach Melissa Cousens did not turn the paperwork in until Feb. 6, 12 days shy of the 60-day requirement. The trip is from March 26 to 29.
However, Cousens said since these guidelines are listed in the staff handbook – which she never got – and not the sports handbook, she wasn’t aware of the rule, which was effective March 2007.
Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Jay Totter said he spoke with Ann Sobrato High School’s athletic director, Kevin Miller, about deadlines. Miller confirmed that at the beginning of the year he spoke with all the coaches, including Cousens, about procedures, and reminded them all to keep watch over their deadlines for travel. Miller did not specifically tell Cousens of the 60-day deadline for attending the National Cheerleading Competition, though.
A loophole in last year’s events caused lawyer-by-day, trustee-by-night Julia Hover-Smoot to call for the emergency meeting.
In December 2007, Cousens was handed paperwork by the previous principal’s secretary to fill out “just in case (they) traveled” that year. Cousens filled it out. The team went to the National Competition in March 2008 and also attended a week-long cheer camp in Monterey Bay over the summer.
“For as long as I have been coaching I have never had issues with any form,” the veteran cheer coach said through her tears, her voice cracking as she added that the girls practiced for 10 months for the upcoming national competition and have placed 10th in their division. “How can I follow a rule I am not aware of?”
This was enough to give Hover-Smoot pause.
“Melissa’s testimony raised a question of fact. Did she get sufficient information to make the appropriate deadline? If what Melissa is telling us is true, last year, she did not get the form. It was given to her. She did not go get it. And she went to Cal-State Monterey without a form. That’s enough to raise a question enough in my mind, was it possibly just an oversight at the high school? I would like us to just at least consider it. It’s within our discretion to let them go.”
Sobrato senior Julia Pasek addressed the board.
“I understand that we did not make the deadline,” she began. “I have come here to talk to you about maybe, possibly, hopefully letting us go to nationals. I do not see the reason behind punishing these 18 girls. Students feel the strongest repercussions for our elders’ mistakes. … This is our (Central Coast Section playoffs).”
Julia’s mother Andrea Pasek spoke next.
“Please listen to our request,” she said. “This cannot be a simple pass/fail based on paperwork.”
