DATE: Friday, November 14, 1997             TAG: 9711140641

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B9   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MATTHEW BOWERS, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: SUFFOLK                           LENGTH:   63 lines

SUFFOLK SCHOOL BOARD CONSIDERS TOUGHENING GPA REQUIREMENTS NOW, STUDENTS MUST HAVE A 2.0 GPA TO PARTICIPATE IN SCHOOL ACTIVITIES.

Students wanting to play tough on the football field or debating panel might soon need to be even tougher in the classroom. Educators here Thursday night proposed tighter 2.0 rules for participation in extracurricular activities.

The School Board is considering changes to its 7-year-old policy thatforces students who didn't have a 2.0 grade-point average - a C average - the prior semester to sit out of extracurricular activities for a full semester to raise their grades.

Another proposed change is to extend probation to a full semester and eliminate summer school as a means to raise grades to meet eligibility.

The 2.0 discussion came during a routine review of several school policies and as the issue is a hot topic in the area.

On Tuesday, six players were dropped from playoff-bound Churchland High School's football team in Portsmouth for failing to meet that school district's 2.0 standard. It's called the toughest in the area because it's applied to each of the school year's four nine-week grading periods.

Lack of clarity was the main reason a policy committee recommended changes to Suffolk's policy. There was confusion and mixed wording in the current policy over semester versus cumulative grade-point averages that hampered enforcement, school officials, principals and coaches say.

Record-keeping problems were another reason, said School Board Vice Chairman Calvin W. Jones. Athletic directors and principals asked for the simpler no-probation policy to make it easier to track students' status.

But it also might be time to raise standards, Assistant Superintendent Janice B. Holland told the board. The 2.0 rule originally was phased in over several years, so students could adjust. Now they should be ready for no probation, either, she said.

``There's a feeling among some coaches and principals that the probationary period has outlived its usefulness,'' Holland said later.

Look at the numbers, she said. Less than 7 percent of the 361 athletes at the city's two high schools - 24 students - started the fall on probation for not reaching the 2.0 mark.

Seven of those - less than one-third of those on probation, and less than 2 percent of the total - were dismissed from their squads when they still didn't reach a 2.0 average. They included five football players, a volleyball player and a golfer.

``It was obvious that at crunch time (most students) were able to get it done,'' Holland said.

No vote was taken, but not all board members were happy with the suggestions. Frances L. Alwood and William L. Whitley said it wasn't fair to students to change the policy in mid-year, and Whitley said he didn't like dropping the summer-school option.

``That goes back to the Dark Ages,'' he said. ``I can't support that.''

Holland said some change is needed, to clear up misunderstandings. The policy is meant to consider one semester's grades, but some of its wording mentions cumulative grades.

Lorraine B. Skeeter said whatever changes are made, they shouldn't be made just to simplify record-keeping, not in a time of computers and other technological aids.

And what about the student, she asked, who attempts a tough, upper-level course and has trouble with it, ruining one semester's grade-point average?

``We need to think about it,'' she said. KEYWORDS: GPA SUFFOLK SCHOOL BOARD

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