DATE: Tuesday, September 30, 1997           TAG: 9709300268

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Chesapeake Weighs Grade Standards  

SOURCE: BY NANCY YOUNG, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: CHESAPEAKE                        LENGTH:   69 lines

SCHOOL BOARD DELAYS ACTION ON GPA OF 2.0

Chesapeake probably will join the other South Hampton Roads school districts in implementing a minimum 2.0 grade point average for Virginia High School League activities, including athletics.

The School Board voted unanimously Monday night to defer making a decision on the issue, citing loopholes in the administration's plan that could allow students to circumvent the rigorous intent of the plan by taking advantage of probationary semesters.

There also was a concern that study halls proposed as part of the package were too unstructured to be of use.

``I want to see more flesh and bone in the study hall program,'' said board member James J. Wheaton, who suggested the board delay making a decision. ``I'd frankly like to see it be more tutoring and less study hall.''

Wheaton and other board members also said they wanted to see the policy extended to the middle school years - which is in the administration's plan as an area requiring further study. Other areas requiring further study are the logistics of the study halls, and what requirements special education and transfer students should abide by.

Chesapeake is the only South Hampton Roads school district that has not passed a minimum grade-point average policy. Suffolk began requiring a minimum GPA in 1991 and Portsmouth in 1994. Virginia Beach's policy went into effect this fall and Norfolk's is scheduled for the fall of 1998.

Despite the board's vote to delay an actual decision, the administration was given the go-ahead to implement the first phase of its proposed plan: voluntary study halls after school. Oscar Smith High School and Indian River High School already have such study halls.

If the plan is eventually approved, in the spring semester the study halls would become mandatory for students who had less than a 2.0 average. The minimum 2.0 average would take effect in the fall of 1998.

If such a policy had been implemented last year, 21 percent of the city's athletes would have been disqualified from participating. Hardest hit would have been the football program, which had 45 percent of its players earning below a 2.0 average.

The board held two public hearings on the issue. Parents and community members who favored the minimum outnumbered those who didn't by about a 2-1 margin - although even those who spoke strongly in favor of the policy expressed their regret that it might exclude student athletes who genuinely couldn't make a 2.0.

Board member Patricia P. Willis shared that regret, but said that ultimately it had to come down to what was best for the greatest number of students. Though she voted to defer the decision on the administration's plan, she said she supports the 2.0 concept.

``I have really struggled with it, because I see such value in extracurricular activities and I hate to take that away from children who may genuinely not be able to make the 2.0,'' Willis said. ``At some point you've got to come down to what is the greater good. . . We want to give them (athletes) the potential that grades would give them, as well as the athletic.''

Board member James M. Reeves said he didn't think the administration's plan was tough enough because the 2.0 average was a per-semester average instead of a cumulative average.

``That doesn't seem to be pointing toward excellence. That almost seems to be a cop-out,'' said Reeves.

But Superintendent W. Randolph Nichols said none of the other South Hampton Roads districts required a cumulative 2.0 and said such a policy could be too tough.

``Chances are they're wiped out for their entire high school career,'' said Nichols. KEYWORDS: CHESAPEAKE SCHOOL BOARD

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