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School board OKs policy banning charter students from playing athletics Tuesday Nov 15, 2016 at 2:00 AM Teresa Thomas Mail Tribune @teresathomas_MT The Medford School Board Monday voted four to two in support of a policy that would ban Medford charter students from participating in most high school athletics starting July 1, 2018. In the meantime, the district will maintain status quo with charter students participating in sports so long as space and materials are available. “We’re kicking the can down the road, but the intent is not to kick the can down the road but to give charter schools time to decide their programs based on discussions with parents and students,” said board member Tricia Prendergast, who voted in favor of the revisions to the district’s extracurricular programs policy. Medford spokeswoman Natalie Hurd said it will be up to building administrators, athletic directors and coaches to determine whether there is space for charter school students on a team. The revised policy will only prohibit charter students from participating in Oregon School Activities Association-sanctioned sports, such as soccer, volleyball, football, baseball and cheerleading. They will still be eligible to compete in community club sports endorsed by the district, including rowing, water polo, bowling, equestrian, ice hockey, ski team and snowboard team. Parents and charter school staff present at Monday’s meeting expressed their frustrations with the policy revisions. “It’s disconcerting that the Medford School Board is making plans to phase out charter school involvement in the district,” said Joseph VonDoloski, Logos’ executive director. “The whole issue — and what I keep hearing — is ‘Us versus them,’ ” he said. One charter school parent, Amy Rose, shared with the board at the beginning of the meeting that her son was hazed, while attending an elementary school in another district, for playing flag, rather than Pop Warner, football. At one point, he was pulled into a locker room and punched multiple times in the crotch by several football players. When she learned about this incident, Rose said she pulled her son out of the school and enrolled him in Logos. Her son played baseball for South Medford High School last year and, under the new rules, may continue to play through his junior year. But after that, Rose said, she’ll probably pull her son out of Logos and register him with the Education Service District as a home-schooler so he can keep playing. By law (Oregon Revised Statute 339.460), home school students who are registered with the ESD and meet their resident school district’s eligibility requirements are given “the opportunity to participate in all interscholastic activities.” Rose was frustrated that the district could “claim” charter schools’ graduation rates and test scores, while not allowing charter students to participate in sports. “(District officials) need to change their freaking website because it is misleading,” Rose said after the votes were cast. “When a parent reads that their child can attend Logos and be under the 549C umbrella, they are thinking that they are going to be supported by the district.” Another Logos parent, Jennifer Hoffman, said she was sad for all the Logos students who were going to find out in Tuesday’s newspaper “whether their board voted for or against them.” Ruth Moncus, who recently ran for Medford City Council, said she found the board’s decision to be disheartening and felt it represented an “anti-charter school sentiment.” Moncus, who has two sons attending Logos, said she tried to sign one of them up for South Medford High School’s swim team, which is a non-cut sport, but was informed charter students couldn’t participate as there wasn’t room on the team. “But if pull my kid out of Logos and put him in South, (District Athletic Director) Amy Tiger said they would take him so there is enough space,” she argued. After much discussion, board members Larry Nicholson, Karen Starchvick, Jeff Thomas and Prendergast voted in favor of the policy revisions, while board members Lilia Caballero and Michael Campbell voted against them. Thomas said after the meeting that he supported the policy but “believes there still may be opportunities to work with families that are already on rosters in our district to figure out solutions that will allow them to finish with us.” Reach education reporter Teresa Thomas at 541-776-4497 or [email protected]. Follow her at www.twitter.com/teresathomas_mt.