Student athletes deserve every opportunity to be successful, said Batavia High School Athletic Director Micheal Bromley at Tuesday evening's Batavia City Schools board meeting, which is why the district needs a tighter tardy policy for those students participating in school sports.
About 54 percent of Batavia's students are involved in athletics during at least one season of the school year, so a stronger tardy policy will have a positive impact on academics overall, Bromley said.
"We want our students to be successful," Bromley said. "To be successful, they need to be in school."
The proposed policy will require student athletes to be on time for their first class of the day. If they're even five minutes late, it's a tardy. They get two freebie tardies during the season. A third tardy means they can't participate in the next practice or athletic event.
Currently, there are no consequences if the student arrives by at least 11 a.m., which means they miss the first two blocks of classes.
There were seniors this year, Bromley said, who were in danger of not meeting academic standards for graduation.
Bromley thinks the change this fall will be a big adjustment for students and their parents. He expects some push back but wants to deliver the message that this policy will help students and their teams succeed.
"We want you to be here," Bromley said he would tell the students. "We want you to represent our school. It's a great honor. With that comes responsibility. Athletics teaches life skills and life skills include being on time, being responsible, being respectful to your coach and your teammates by doing the right things."
The need for a policy change arose, Bromley said, because of frustrations expressed by coaches and teachers.
Many teachers questioned how students could represent the school in athletic events while not showing up regularly to classes, he said.
"We're not trying to be mean here," Bromley said. "We just want people to be here. Teachers are very frustrated when students don't show up for the first block of the day."
School board members responded favorably to the new policy, which was crafted by a committee of school officials who looked at policies from several area school districts before crafting the one presented to the board.
The policy is intended to be both stricter than what exists now, but also flexible. The two freebie tardies recognize that things happen -- cars break down, assignments are forgotten at home and need to be retrieved, family members get sick and hold things up, etc., but student-athletes also need to be held accountable if they want to faithfully represent the community in competition.
The policy will be evaluated during the fall, comparing this fall's data with data from previous fall seasons to see if tardiness is reduced and attendance is improved. If the policy works and is refined, it could be rolled out to cover students participating in other extracurricular activities.
Policy summary:
- Student athletes will get two free tardies each sports season, fall, winter and spring.
- A third tardy will result in the student not being allowed to participate in his or her team's next athletic event, be it practice or game.
- A tardy can be excused by a doctor's note; parental notes will not be accepted as an excuse.
- The tardy clock begins as soon as the bell rings for the first class of the day.
