PUSD extends academic probation

PARADISE » The Paradise Unified School District recently passed its addendum to Assembly Bill 908 that was passed in September. The law allows school districts to establish a policy regarding participation in extracurricular and co- curricular activities as a condition for the receipt of specified school funding.

Because of COVID-19, the state is letting school districts to adopt a policy that will allow a probationary period to exceed one semester in length through the end of the 2020-21 school year.

The district school board discussed the policy in the November meeting and at the Dec. 16 meeting — it created a policy for the rest of the year that allows a student who fails to meet the academic eligibility requirements as outlined in the Paradise High

School athletic policy will be placed on probation at the end of Mark 3 which was assigned at the end of the first semester. The student’s probationary period will end on Mark 4. If a student does not complete the minimum requirements to meet academic eligibility guidelines, he/she will be

academically ineligible to play sports.

At PUSD a student-athlete must meet the following CIF requirements:

• The student must be enrolled at the school for which they wish to participate in athletics.

• The student must be currently enrolled in at least 20-semester credits.

• The student must pass at least 20-semester credits of work at the completion of the previous grading period.

• The student must be maintaining minimum progress toward meeting the high school graduation requirements as prescribed by the governing board.

• The student has maintained during the previous grading period a minimum of a 2.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale in all enrolled courses.

• The student must maintain a 2.0 GPA, no more than one F grade, be less than 20 credits deficient and on track to graduate from Paradise High School.

When the district discussed the policy in November there was some urgency

to get a policy in place, with “fall” sports schedules having a start date in December for practice. But the pandemic seems to have pushed those dates back.

In November there were roughly 250 athletes at Paradise High, which equates roughly to 25 percent of the entire athletic program facing probation. That’s far more than the school had at any time prior to the Camp Fire, Athletic Director Anne Stearns told the board in November.