The need to place school before sports was emphasized at an April 23 City of Poughkeepsie Board of Education meeting by Dutchess County Sheriff’s Office Public Relations Officer Robin Fryar, who spoke on behalf of his supervisor, Sheriff Adrian “Butch” Anderson, and said that academics need to be the primary focus over athletics in order for students to graduate and become successful.
“Graduating levels are down. Students who play sports are being allowed to fail,” Fryar said.
“If you look around at districts like Red Hook, Rhinebeck or Spackenkill, they have a little bit higher standards. They don’t allow students to fail two or three subjects. When it comes time for them to graduate, it becomes hard if you allow them to fail a certain amount of subjects but still say they can play sports,” he said. “Raise the bar a little bit, and not allow them to fail.”
The board’s current policy states that students can fail one class and still participate in school athletics. If they fail two or more classes, they’re placed on academic probation and a determination is made whether the student can remain on a team. The state’s passing grade is a 65.
Board member Robert Creedon defended student-athletes.
“If we continue to denigrate our student athletes, sit down and do fact-based analysis. I went through every basketball team’s grade-point average (GPA) from the modifed middle school, to the junior varsity girls and boys to the varsity girls and boys, and they exceeded the general population’s GPAs across the board,” he said.
Creedon questioned the comment made by Fryar, with regard to academic success for student-athletes.
“I don’t know where this is coming from,” Creedon said. “The girls teams were actually 50 percent higher GPAs than the general population, for whatever reason. Football programs have after-school tutoring; they work hard.”
Fellow board member Greg Charter, a Pop Warner football coach, agreed.
“It’s all about the kids,” he said. “They’re our future.”
One of the goals of the board is to improve the graduation rate.
“Some (students) will come out in four years; some in our five-year program will come out in five,” said Superintendent Laval Wilson.
Wilson believes that progress for the students needs to begin earlier.
“You don’t improve the graduation rate of high school at the 11th and 12th-grade levels,” Wilson said. “You have to do that at the elementary school.”
Some of the initiatives the district is taking to ensure students’ success include offering two periods of reading and math for those students in need of extra help this year as well as tutorial services. Next year, double-periods for reading and math will be offered for ninth and 10th-graders.
Wilson said Saturday classes will be offered in the coming year for third, fourth and fifth-graders needing additional instruction.
For the last two years at the middle school, the district has utilized the America’s Choice program, where students meet and work with teams of teachers on regular basis in subject areas of math, science, English and social studies.
Wilson said that across the country, the academic programs Poughkeepsie is providing is a model to follow.
“When you go with a small learning community, you find better attendance, better grades and better discipline,” he said.
Board approves career academies and budget
The board also approved career academies for the 2008-2009 school-year, and made its recommendation for the preliminary 2008-2009 budget, which totals $81.5 million.
The tax levy for the proposed budget is 3.51 percent, the lowest levy in Dutchess County, according to Wilson. Board members believe it is acceptable for the public.
“I think 3.5 percent is good for the community,” said Charter.
Wilson said the district did not have to make any staff cuts in order to balance the budget, a concern of several board members at an April 10 board meeting.
“I am pleased to recommend this budget to the board. I think it’s a budget that supports the types of programs we are striving to continue, and it also provides us support to carry out reforms at the middle school and high school,” said Wilson.
The budget and school board election vote will be open to the public on Tuesday, May 20 between noon and 9 p.m. at various polling sites in the city (see below).
Career academies approved for the fall include Design Arts and Media, Business and Government, Math Applied Science and Technology and Academy of Health and Human Services.
Polling site changes
The Dutchess County Board of Elections has revised the election districts for the Poughkeepsie City School District. As a result of this revision, the Board of Education has designated school polling sites for residents that will make voting as convenient as possible.
The polling sites, which will be open from noon to 9 p.m. for the school board election and school budget vote on Tuesday, May 20, are as follows:
• Morse School
101 Mansion St.
1st Ward and 3rd Ward
• Warring School
283 Mansion St.
5th Ward
• Clinton School
100 Montgomery St.
2nd Ward and 4th Ward
• Poughkeepsie Middle School
55 College Ave.
6th Ward and 7th Ward
• Krieger School
Whittier Boulevard Entrance
8th Ward
For more information, call 451-4740.