By David Fenker
david@nmpaper.com
NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. – Homeschooled students may soon be able to participate in extracurricular activities through Manchester Community Schools.
Manchester Jr.-Sr. High School Principal Dr. Jon Lippe and MJSHS Athletic Director Jeremy Markham presented a local grandparent’s request to allow homeschooled children to participate at the MCS Board of School Trustees’ March 14 meeting.
“Currently, we don’t have a policy, so homeschooled kids do not participate,” Lippe said.
Markham informed the board that the Indiana High School Athletic Association constructed a policy regarding homeschooler participation in athletic events about four years ago.
“In a nutshell, they have to live in our school district, they have to have been homeschooled for at least three consecutive years, and they have to show proof of passing five out of seven [courses] on our nine-week grading periods when we certify with the IHSAA, and they have to take at least one class within our building on a daily basis,” he said.
Under the IHSAA policy, students also have to complete any state-mandated exams for courses they are taking.
Markham added that he had contacted the other schools in the Three Rivers Conference, and that four of the nine had no policy and five followed the IHSAA policy. Two of the four that currently have no policy are also looking into it.
“I asked [Markham] and Dr. Lippe to present this tonight so that the board could hear what the policy could be. If the board is interested in pursuing this as a formal policy, then we will work on designing and drafting that and bring that back at the April meeting,” MCS Superintendent Dr. Bill Reichhart said.
“This would also include all extracurriculars. In other words, it would be dramas, musicals, any extracurricular event, not just athletics, if we do it.”
The board responded favorably to the idea, with several members expressing interest in establishing such a policy for the district.
A common concern among board members – and other schools in the TRC – was the requirement that the homeschooled students take only one class in the district’s schools.
“The negative part of this is it takes away playing time from students who are in our buildings seven hours a day, because you have homeschoolers coming in for one period and they can take a spot and play,” Reichhart said.
Markham noted that, for sports who cut players, such a policy may not affect MCS students.
“The one conversation I had with one school, I asked them if they would do anything different, now that they’ve had this,” Markham said.
“The only thing that [their athletic director] mentioned, that they’ve talked about, was that they would have made the requirement for more than one class in their building a day, maybe two or three classes.”
A policy proposal will be presented at the board’s April 11 meeting.