Morgan Hill Unified School District school board removes policy
for 2012-2013 school year
Tuesday night, the Morgan Hill Unified School District school board meeting made an official voting decision: remove the No F policy.
At the request of board trustee Bob Benevento, two agenda items regarding Board Policy 5121 and 6145 were pulled out of the consent calendar – which usually contains previously discussed items and are passed in bulk at meetings.
Board Policy 5121 and 6145 outline changes in the No F policy eligibility requirements for middle and high school students to participate in extra and co-curricular activities. By removing the No F policy, students for the 2012-2013 school can receive failing grades as long as they maintain a 2.0 grade point average (GPA) for eligibility to participate.
This matter was first discussed at the Aug.9 board meeting and the Aug. 23 meeting. The board consensus after discussions as of Aug. 23 was to remove the No F policy from BP 6145.
Previous board policies had contradicted each other; BP 5121 does not specify a “No F” policy and is currently in the handbooks for the 2011-2012 school year. In conflict with it was BP 6145, which did state that no F’s meant no after school activities, and is the policy that middle schools in the district are following.
Benevento made a motion to postpone discussion of these agenda items until March 6, so that the board could have more time to research the subjects, he said.
“Part of the concern here, is the application of the No F policy.,” said Benevento. “I ask for your indulgence.”
The motion to postpone the agenda item on BP 5121 was defeated three to four, with trustee’s Claudia Rossi, Ron Woolf, Peter Mandel and Kathleen Sullivan voting no. A motion was made to vote to approve the revisions to BP 5121, which was approved 6 to 1 with Benevento voting no.
“This is on the community’s radar and they’re looking for direction,” said Rossi in regards to postponing discussion.
Board Policy 6145 to remove “No F” in revisions came to a closer vote of four to three, with Benevento, Moody and Mandel voting no.
“We admit it is our staff’s error,” said MHUSD superintendent Wes Smith of the conflicting policies. “We’re going to honor that practice and get it into alignment for this next (school) year.”
